NDA fared badly in final phase of LS polls in Bihar

It was the drubbing in the final phase of polls that ensured the National Democratic Alliance's worst performance, in a parliamentary election, since it first came to power in Bihar.

According to the Election Commission data, 30 out of the state's 40 Lok Sabha seats went to the BJP-led coalition in the latest elections, a sharp drop compared with 39 in 2019 and lower than the tallies of 2014 (31) and 2009 (32).

The NDA has been ruling Bihar since 2005, and powered by a strong ally like Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, it did exceedingly well before the advent of 'Modi wave'.

The wave, when it came, ensured that the coalition had the upper hand despite Kumar, the Janata Dal-United president, not by its side.

In the just concluded elections, the nascent Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) bagged nine seats, while one went to an Independent.

Six of the eight constituencies where polls were held in the seventh and final phase on June 1, voted for the Rashtriya Janata Dal-Congress-Left combine.

Communist Party of India-Marxist-Leninist Liberation general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya, whose party won two seats, its best performance in Lok Sabha polls, took note of the trend.

"Even though the INDIA coalition has underperformed in Bihar, the best performance has once again come from the south Bihar region of Shahabad and Magadh. Of the eight seats that went to the polls in this region on the last phase, INDIA has won six and put up a great fight in the other two," he told PTI.

The Left party had contested three seats, including Nalanda, the home turf of Nitish Kumar, whose JD-U held on to the citadel.

However, the CPI-ML wrested Arrah from R K Singh, a Union minister and second term BJP MP, and Karakat, which has voted for the NDA ever since it came into being since 2008 delimitation.

Moreover, the RJD, which is the INDIA bloc's largest Bihar constituent, performed below its potential, grabbing only four seats.

Three of these wins were in seats that went to polls in the final phase -- Patliputra, Jehanabad and Buxar.

Besides, the Congress, for long seen as a spent force in the state, also won three of the nine seats it contested.

The party sprang a surprise in Sasaram, a reserved constituency that had for long been nurtured by late Jagjivan Ram and her daughter Meira Kumar.

Kumar, a former Lok Sabha Speaker, lost the seat to BJP in 2014 and failed to win it back five years later. Following her reluctance to contest again this time, the party fielded Manoj Kumar, who had in 2019 fought on a Bahujan Samaj Party ticket, finishing third and lost his deposit.

The new entrant ended up winning the seat for the grand old party.

The Magadh-Shahabad region also includes Aurangabad, which went to polls in the first phase, and where the RJD gave a ticket to Arun Kushwaha, a JD-U turncoat, causing some resentment in the Congress which wanted to field former governor Nikhil Kumar, whose family has won the seat many times.

However, the counter-intuitive move to field Kushwaha, an OBC whose caste is known to be tilted more towards NDA, clicked in the Rajput-majority seat, which the RJD wrested from BJP's Sunil Kumar Singh, who was hoping for a fourth consecutive term.

Meanwhile, Bhattacharya seemed happy that his party 'played an anchor role in shaping this unity and assertion of the forces fighting for democracy and social justice'.

He pointed out, "Our party also had to face an assembly by-poll in Agiaon (SC) seat in Bhojpur necessitated by the disqualification of our MLA Manoj Manzil due to conviction in a politically motivated false case, which the party won with a comfortable margin."

"More than three decades ago, the CPI-ML achieved its first parliamentary victory from Bihar when Rameshwar Prasad had won from Ara under the banner of the Indian People's Front and tens of thousands of oppressed poor people had voted for the first time. The entry of two farmers' leaders of CPI-ML in the Lok Sabha will give a boost to the people's movement for democracy, justice and development with dignity," added Bhattacharya.

In addition to the aforementioned seats, the INDIA bloc registered victories in the Muslim-dominated Seemanchal region, falling in the state's northeast, bordering Nepal and West Bengal.

The Congress retained Kishanganj, the only Muslim majority seat in Bihar, while its senior leader and former Union minister Tariq Anwar wrested back adjoining Katihar from JD-U's Dulal Chandra Goswami.

Voters of Kishanganj refused to get swayed by Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi, who had campaigned intensively for Akhtarul Iman, the Bihar unit chief of his AIMIM.

Yet another seat in the region which the NDA lost is Purnea, where former MP Pappu Yadav won, contesting as an Independent.

Married to Congress Rajya Sabha member Ranjit Ranjan, Yadav calls him a 'loyal soldier of Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi', and had merged his Jan Adhikar Party ahead of the polls.

However, when the RJD staked claim on the seat, he hoped that the Congress would agree to a friendly contest and give him a party ticket before taking the plunge.

Yadav defeated two-term JD-U MP Santosh Kushwaha while the RJD candidate Bima Bharti, a JD-U turncoat, finished third and lost her deposit.