Bihar bypolls end in draw; RJD, BJP retain seats with dip in margin

Gopalganj had a nail-biting finish with candidates of both the parties, Kusum Devi of the BJP and Mohan Kumar Gupta of the RJD leading the counts in different rounds. At the end, however, Kusum, wife of deceased BJP legislator Subash Singh, managed to wrest the seat with a margin of 1,794 votes.

The by-elections on two assembly seats in Bihar, Mokama and Gopalganj, ended in a draw with both rival parties, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Bharatijya Janata Party (BJP), managing to retain their seats, though with lesser victory margin vis-a-vis last assembly elections.

In Mokama, don-turned-politician Anant Singh’s wife Neelam Devi won against Sonam Devi, wife of another strongman, Lalan Singh. (PTI)

Gopalganj had a nail-biting finish with candidates of both the parties, Kusum Devi of the BJP and Mohan Kumar Gupta of the RJD leading the counts in different rounds. At the end, however, Kusum, wife of deceased BJP legislator Subash Singh, managed to wrest the seat with a margin of 1,794 votes.

Subash Singh had won the seat in 2020 for the BJP with a margin of more than 36,000 votes over his nearest rival of the Bahujan Samaj Party’s (BSP) Anirudh Prasad alias Sadhu Yadav, while the Congress candidate finished third with nearly 37,000 votes.

To the utter discomfiture of the BJP fans, the RJD’s candidate took an initial lead in Gopalganj. However, Kusum Devi left Gupta behind in the counting until the last four rounds, which saw the former gaining the lead. In the final three rounds, the BJP candidate led the count and won the elections.

In Mokama, don-turned-politician Anant Singh’s wife Neelam Devi maintained a clear lead since the initial round of counting against her rival Sonam Devi, who is also wife of a strongman, Lalan Singh. Lalan Singh, who faces around 30 criminal cases, had the backing of Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) until the death of its founder chief Ram Vilas Paswan. The Mokama seat went for the bypoll after its sitting MLA Anant Singh was disqualified as the member of the legislative assembly on being convicted in a criminal case.

Though Neelam Devi retained the seat for the RJD, the winning margin dipped to 16,741 votes against 35,757 when her husband had won it for the party, defeating his nearest rival of the JDU Rajeev Lochan Narayan Singh. Neelam got a total of 79,744 votes, while the BJP’s Sonam Devi was polled 63,003 votes.

Political analyst and former head of Patna University’s Economics department, Nawal Kishore Chaudhary said that the results demonstrated the rise of Tejashwi Prasad Yadav-led Mahagadhbandhan (MGB) in Bihar amid desertion of a section of upper class voters from the JD(U). “The MGB may have a clear-cut edge over the BJP in state politics, but it’s not going to eclipse the scope for the Narendra Modi-led BJP dispensation coming back to power at the Centre after 2024 Lok Sabha polls,” added Chaudhary.

State BJP chief Sanjay Jaiswal said that the results emphatically demonstrated that Bihar’s politics is not getting confined to a bipolar contest between the BJP and the RJD with other parties including Nitish Kumar-led Janata Dal-United (JD-U) getting sidelined in the electors’ scheme of things. “The BJP’s victory at Gopalganj and narrowing margin at Mokama clearly laid the foundation for a bright future for the party,” said Jaiswal.

RJD spokesman Shakti Singh Yadav, however, termed the outcome of bypoll results as growing trust of electors of Bihar towards the MGB. “The BJP’s victory on Gopalganj with a marginal vote is attributed to the sympathy for its departed leader Subash Singh,” said Yadav.