Putting up a good show, the NDA won 13 seats in the Legislative Council elections while the Nitish Kumar-led alliance managed to win just 10 of the 24 seats in the state.
An independent candidate <g data-gr-id="20">Ritlal</g> Yadav, who is lodged in Patna’s Beur jail, has won the Patna seat. Yadav is a hardcore criminal who is currently behind bars on charges of extortion, murder, kidnapping, amid others. It’s worth mentioning that during Lok Sabha polls, <g data-gr-id="21">Ritlal</g> had ‘supported’ the candidature of Lalu’s daughter Misa Bharti from Partliputra parliamentary seat.
Though, Nitish-Lalu camp has said that the results would not make any impact on their seat sharing strategy and their partnership would remain intact, but BJP has dubbed the coalition as unnatural, which is on the verge of collapse. “The outcome of council elections cannot become the mandate of people of <g data-gr-id="28">state</g>. The pattern of council elections is totally different from assembly one. So, it won’t make any impact on the alliance, wait for the assembly elections, the results will be in favour of non-communal forces,” said Chandan Singh, a senior JD (U) leader.
While Union Telecom Minister and senior BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad said that the 13 seat win in Bihar council election is much enough to say that the grand alliance has lost their ground in the state. “It’s victory of good governance over bad. People want BJP back in <g data-gr-id="31">state</g> for development and not Lalu-Nitish, who have jointly ruled the state for 25 years. We have won the semi-final and confident that the party will win final with <g data-gr-id="30">huge</g> margin,” said Prasad.
However, the results suggest that despite the coalition, BJP-led NDA still stands a strong chance in the state. It is also an eye-opener for the JD(U)-RJD combine as even after all the efforts that they have made to defeat the NDA, the BJP-led alliance has emerged triumphant in the legislative council elections.