Photo-finish 'victory' in six seats helped NDA 'win' Bihar battle
New Delhi: With the NDA managing just 125 seats in Bihar in a nail-biter of a fight with the Mahagathbandhan in six seats, it would seem as if the saffron alliance had managed to snatch its victory from the jaws of defeat.
The photo-finish victory of the ruling alliance candidates in six seats with a margin of less than 500 has played a decisive role in deciding the fate of NDA and turning the battle of the ballot in is favour.
As per the data available at Election Commission website, the thinnest margin between the winner and the runner-up was of 12 votes in Hilsa constituency — a stronghold bastion of RJD. Similarly, the winning margin in Barbigha assembly constituency was 113 votes and the BJP candidate won Bachhwara seat with a margin of just 484 votes.
Surprisingly, most of the seats in the controversy has been "won" by JD(U) candidates, while BJP's nominee has stood victorious at one seat with low margin.
In case of Hilasa seat, the RJD alleged, Atri Muni alias Shakti Singh Yadav had comfortably won the seat and was declared winner by returning officials, but later on his opponent Krishna Murari Sharan alias Prem Mukhiya of Janata Dal (United) was announced winner of the seat with a margin of 12 seats.
The JD(U) candidate Krishna Murari Sharan got 61,848 votes against the RJD's candidate Shakti Singh of 61,836 votes. In 2015, Shakti Singh had won Hilsa seat with a margin of over 26,000.
Prior to the declaration of the final result late on Tuesday night, around 10 pm, the RJD alleged foul play in the counting process.
In a tweet, the RJD alleged, "The Returning Officer had declared RJD candidate Shakti Singh from Hilsa assembly constituency as the winner by 547 votes. He was told to wait for issuing the victory certificate. But then the Returning Officer received a call from the chief minister's residence and the officer suddenly changed his decision by saying that the RJD candidate has lost by 13 votes due to postal ballots being cancelled." However, the poll body denied any foul play.
Besides Hilsa, the winning margins were very thin in Barbigha, Bhorey, Bachhwara, Matihani and Parbatta.
The JD(U)'s Sudarshan Kumar 'snatched' Barbigha seat Congress's Gajanand Shahi with a margin of 113, while JDU's Sunil Kumar
won Bhorey seat by "defeating" Jitendra Paswan of CPI(M-L) with a margin of 462 votes. Notably, Sunil Kumar is a retired IPS officer, who had served as DG in the Nitish government.
The Bachhwara seat has been won by BJP's Surendra Mehata as he defeated CPI's Abdhesh Kumar Rai with a margin of 484 votes.
Some other seats that saw a cut-throat competition included Bakhri, Ramgarh, Chakai, Matihani, Kurhani, Arrah, Banmankhi, Barauli, Chainpur, Chanpatia, Jhanjharpur, and Tarari.
In Parbatta, JD(U)'s Doctor Sanjeev Kumar got 951 votes more than RJD's Digambar Prasad Tiwary.
In Matihani, LJP's Raj Kumar Singh won against JD(U)'s Narendra Kumar Singh by a margin of just 333 votes. However, CPI(M) candidate Rajendra Prasad Singh got just 432 votes less than the winning candidate.
In a related development, RJD candidate from Parihar seat has written a letter to Chief Election Commissioner for recounting of votes alleging foul play by officials on election duty. As per Election Commission data, Kumar lost to BJP's Gaytri Devi with a margin of 1,569 votes.
