Bihar bypolls: Nitish Kumar ‘thanks’ voters for ‘reposing their faith in JD(U)’

Nitish Kumar, who was garlanded by party workers in Patna on Wednesday, remarked that the people of Bihar have “given their verdict” by electing both representatives of JD(U).

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar thanked voters for “reposing their faith” in Janata Dal United (JDU) in the assembly bypolls. “I've said earlier that the public is supreme. They'll decide, and they've decided. Hence I want to thank them for reposing their faith in us,” Kumar said.

JD(U) retained both Tarapur and Kusheshwar Asthan assembly seats, defeating the Rashtriya Janata Dal candidates. (PTI Photo)  (PTI)

JD(U) retained both Tarapur and Kusheshwar Asthan assembly seats, defeating the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) candidates. First-time candidates Aman Bhushan Hazari and Rajiv Kumar Singh won by a margin of more than 12,000 votes and 3,800 votes from Tarapur and Kusheshwar Asthan, respectively.

Kumar, who was garlanded by party workers in Patna on Wednesday, remarked that the people of Bihar have “given their verdict” by electing both representatives of JD(U).

The bypolls were necessitated by the death of the two sitting JD(U) representatives, and a loss to RJD would have further eroded the strength of the party in the ruling coalition it has formed with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) after last year’s assembly elections.

RJD supremo Lalu Prasad had campaigned for his party’s candidates in both seats after a hiatus of six years and although his rallies attracted a huge number of people it did not translate into votes for Arun Kumar Sah and Ganesh Bharti, the RJD candidates from Tarapur and Kusheshwar Asthan, respectively.

RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav accepted his party’s defeat. “We accept the people’s verdict. The sympathy factor worked at both the places,” he said after the verdict was announced. His brother Tej Pratap Yadav, however, lashed out at state president Jagadanand Singh, besides MLC Sunil Singh, and Tejashwi’s key aide Sanjay Yadav, blaming them for the party’s defeat and demanding their expulsion.