E-Paper
LJP: Biggest X-factor of the elections
This talk of being a part of government formation has little meaning now -- the NDA has managed a simple majority of 124 in the assembly, and the LJP has won just one seat.
The Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) contesting the Bihar elections outside the fold of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) was the biggest X-factor in these elections, though the party has won a solitary seat in the elections.
On the campaign trail, the LJP’s main attack was focused on the Janata Dal (United) -- so much so that it kept talking about forming a government with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) after the results, stressing on how it was still part of the NDA at the Centre and leader Chirag Paswan kept criticising chief minister Nitish Kumar while praising the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
This talk of being a part of government formation has little meaning now -- the NDA has managed a simple majority of 124 in the assembly, and the LJP has won just one seat.
The LJP has managed to improve its vote share from 4.8% to 5.7% between 2015 and 2020 assembly elections, largely a function of the fact that it contested in 135 assembly constituencies (ACs) this time, compared to just 42 in 2015. However, this is the LJP’s worst performance in terms of seats, and in keeping with the trend of its growing marginalisation in the state’s politics. (See Chart)
But an HT analysis of the LJP’s performance shows that its candidates played the role of a spoiler in 64 assembly constituencies (ACs). Candidates are defined as spoilers if they are ranked third or below, and get more votes than the victory margin in a constituency. The biggest sufferer of the LJP in these elections was the JD(U), which lost elections in 27 ACs where the LJP was a spoiler.
The LJP also has acted as a spoiler in 17 ACs for the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), 11 for the Congress, 4 for the Vikassheel Insan Party (VIP), 3 for the Communist Party of India Marxist Leninist (Liberation), and one for the BJP.
