RJD begins probe into poll defeat, focus on Kosi & Seemanchal rout

Party insiders said one of the foremost factors behind RJD’s loss in Kosi and north Bihar districts was the party’s failure to garner votes of the extremely backward classes.

After the defeat in the recently concluded Bihar Assembly polls 2020, the opposition Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) has begun examining the reasons behind the party’s loss on 69 seats out of the 144 it contested in alliance with the Congress and three Left parties.

Tejashwi Yadav had alleged that irregularities in the counting process was the chief reason of the opposition alliance’s defeat in Bihar polls.(HT Photo)

The party has formed a committee led by former minister Shyam Rajak to find out the reasons behind the loss of party’s candidates in certain pockets and overall strategic lapses.

“We have invited all the defeated candidates and senior leaders of each division to Patna to probe why the party lost in key constituencies where chances of winning were high. We will also consider the candidates’ feedback about the counting process and votes they got in each constituency,” said Rajak.

He said the committee, formed a few days back, will submit its report in the next 15 days.

Though the RJD’s strike rate was over 50%, having won 75 out of the 144 seats to emerge as the single largest party in the state assembly, top party leaders feel the need to examine why they lost in north Bihar, Kosi and Seemanchal.

In Seemanchal, the RJD had won only one seat out of the 11 it contested. In the Kosi belt, the RJD only won two out of 13 seats.

Party insiders said one of the foremost factors behind RJD’s loss in Kosi and north Bihar districts was the party’s failure to garner votes of the extremely backward classes ( EBCs) despite having given 21 seats to candidates from the section.

“We were hopeful of getting EBCs votes this time but it did not happen that way,” said a senior RJD leader, who himself lost from a seat in Darbhanga district.

The other factor was said to be the division of votes of Muslims in Kishanganj, Araria and Katihar by the AIMIM, led by Asaduddin Owaisi. The AIMIM won five seats, of which four assembly seats were in Kishganganj constituency and one was in Araria.

The RJD led GA won 110 seats missing the halfway mark of 122 seats by a slender margin. RJD’s Tejashwi Prasad Yadav has been alleging that the coalition lost around 30 seats due to anomalies in the counting process.