NI-MO decimates all in Yadav heartland

NEW DELHI: The ruling NDA decimated the Mahagathbandhan in Bihar on Friday to retain power, reaffirming Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s popularity and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s enduring appeal and dealing a body blow to the Congress and ally RJD.

The massive scale of the victory of the National Democratic Alliance(NDA) can be gauged from the fact that its two main constituents – BJP and JD(U) are on course for an over 85 per cent strike rate in 101 seats each they had contested.

The alliance is set for a ‘200 paar’ win for a three-fourth majority, with the BJP emerging as the single largest party, according to latest results and trends at 9.30 pm. Nitish’s Mukhymantri Mahila Rojgar Yojana, under which Rs 10,000 has been

transferred into accounts of each of over one crore women, and a poll promise of 100 per cent domicile “only for women who already enjoyed 35 per cent reserva tions in all government departments,” seem to have paid off.

“The people of Bihar, with this massive victory and their unshakable confidence, have taken the state by storm,” Prime Minister Modi told cheering party workers at BJP headquarters in Delhi in the evening after accepting their greetings by waving a ‘gamcha’ that represents Bihar’s cultural identity.

While the BJP won 87 seats, up from 74 in 2020, Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal(U) tasted success in 78 constituencies, up

from 43. The majority mark in the 243-member Assembly is 122. The BJP and the JD(U) were leading in two and

seven seats, respectively.

The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) seat tally slipped to 24 from 75 and Congress bagged only six out of the 61 seats it contested, down from 19. RJD was leading in one.

The LJP(RV), headed by Union minister Chirag Paswan, the self-declared ‘Hanuman’ of the Prime Minister, which was left with only 28 candidates in the fray, with nomination papers of one of its nominees getting rejected during scrutiny, won 18 seats and was leading in one constituency.

Hailing the NDA’s huge win, Prime Minister Modi said it has given a new ‘MY – Mahila and Youth’ formula with the people destroying the “communal MY formula of the jungle raj people”.

In an apparent reference to the Muslim-Yadav support base of the RJD, Modi said that in Bihar some parties had for-

mulated an “MY formula” but today’s victory has given a new “positive MY --

Mahila and Youth” formula.

Overcoming anti-incumbency, Chief Minister Nitish thanked the people of the state for giving a “landslide” victory for the NDA. “People of the state have expressed their confidence in our governmet by giving us a landslide mandate in the polls. For this, I bow to all the esteemed voters of the state, and express my heartfelt gratitude and thanks,” Kumar said.

Debutant Kishor's Jan Suraaj ends with a nought

PATNA: Former poll strategist Prashant Kishor's Jan Suraaj Party (JSP), dubbed the 'X factor' in the Bihar election, failed to open its account in the 243-mem-ber assembly, despite contesting in 238 seats.

According to the Election Commis-sion, most of the JSP candidates have secured less than 10 per cent of the total votes polled and have their de-posit forfeited.

So far, the party's best performance came from Naveen Kumar Singh alias Abhay Singh, who secured the second spot from the Marhaura constituency. Jitendra Kumar Rai of the RJD won the seat by a margin of 27,928 votes.

The party, floated by the former po-litical strategist, failed to galvanise votes in its favour, despite a high-pitched campaign and raising press-ing issues such as unemployment, migration and dearth of industries.

A majority of the JSP candidates in 238 constituencies look set to forfeit their security deposit, according to the Commission data. In many seats, the vote count of JSP candidates is less than the NOTA category.