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Bihar Election 2020: Tirhut, Mithilanchal and Kosi regions put NDA in lead
The Grand Alliance lost much ground in Kosi and Seemanchal because of Asaduddin Owaisi’s All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) and division in the Muslim votes
The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) managed to offset the losses it suffered in Bihar’s Magadh and Shahabad regions by winning a majority of seats in Mithilanchal, Kosi, and Tirhut regions, which together account for 99 seats. In Tirhut, the NDA won 32 out of the 49 seats. The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD)-led Grand Alliance managed to get only 17 seats.
The NDA won 26 out of 37 seats in Mithilanchal. The RJD and the Congress managed only 10 seats. Even top RJD and Congress leaders like Abdul Bari Siddiqui, Faraz Fatmi, Kripanath Pathak, and Bhavna Jha lost the elections from the region.
The Grand Alliance lost much ground in Kosi and Seemanchal because of Asaduddin Owaisi’s All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) and division in the Muslim votes. The NDA managed to win 22 out of the total 37 constituencies while RJD registered its worst-ever performance by winning only four seats compared to nine in 2015. The Congress and the AIMIM won five each.
Also Read: Full coverage of Bihar assembly election 2020
Political analyst DM Diwakar said that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) managed to tilt the election in its favour in Mithilanchal and in rest of the North Bihar by galvanizing its grassroots level cadres to polarise votes on backward-forward and Hindu-Muslim lines, depending upon the nature of the constituencies. “Till the first phase of polling, when the Grand Alliance was leading, electors were divided and a majority of upper castes were planning to give the Grand Alliance a chance because of shirking jobs and sufferings of the migrants. But a sustained campaign launched by the BJP cadres changed the scenario days before the polls,” said Diwakar.
Congress leader Harkhu Jha said till the first phase of the polling, the NDA was struggling to counter the agenda RJD leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav had set with his promise for the government jobs for one million people. “He had begun to attract a large number of youths.”
The narrative helped the Grand Alliance win 51 out of 71 seats in Magadh and Shahabad regions, which went to the polls in the first phase. The NDA managed to get 18 out of 49 seats in Magadh and two out of 19 in Shahabad.
Political analyst Nawal Kishore Chaudhary said the issues relating to farmers’ plight because of the government’s failure in ensuring good returns for their produce and acute shortage of jobs seemed to have caught the voters’ attention. He said this prompted the BJP’s poll strategists to mobilise all their resources for the NDA candidates.
