RJD wrests Bochahan assembly seat from ruling NDA in bypoll

The by-election in the constituency in Muzaffarpur district was necessitated following the demise of Musafir Paswan, who had won the seat in 2020 assembly polls on a ticket of Mukesh Sahni-led VIP

The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) Saturday registered a thumping victory in Bochahan (reserve) assembly constituency in Bihar, where its candidate Amar Kumar Paswan defeated his nearest rival Baby Kumari of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) by 36,617 votes.

Vikassheel Insaan Party president Mukesh Sahni celebrates his party’s performance in the bypoll. (HT)

Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP) candidate and RJD rebel Ramai Ram’s daughter Geeta Devi finished third with 29,279 votes.

Congress’s nominee Tarun Chaudhary lost his security deposit, polling a meagre 1,336 votes, which was less than half cast in favour of NOTA.

The by-election in the constituency in Muzaffarpur district was necessitated following the demise of Musafir Paswan, who had won the seat in 2020 assembly polls on a ticket of Mukesh Sahni-led VIP. His son Amar Paswan, who was earlier tipped to be the VIP nominee, had switched his loyalty at the eleventh hour and joined the RJD.

Amar Paswan got 82,526 votes (48.5% of total polled votes) against Baby Kumari’s 45,909 votes (26.98%).

With this, RJD’s tally in the 243-member Bihar assembly has climbed to 76. BJP remains the single largest party with 77 MLAs, a number it reached only last month when all three VIP MLAs defected and joined the saffron party.

VIP had fought 2020 Bihar assembly elections as part of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and won four seats. Sahni himself lost but was made a minister and later elected member of legislative council (MLC) in a bypoll. His was recently ousted as a minister in the state government following the defection of all his party’s three MLAs to BJP. His term as MLC also ends in a few months.

An upbeat Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, RJD’s heir apparent and leader of opposition in Bihar, thanked the voters in a tweet and said the result reflected the mood of Bihar. “People suffering from unemployment, inflation, poor education and law and order in the assembly by-elections have meted out justice to the anti-people and opportunistic NDA dispensation, comprising four parties, and the double engine government,” Yadav tweeted.

Sahni said though his party lost in the bypoll, it had achieved the major objective to teach BJP a lesson for stabbing in the back. He also distributed sweets among the party workers to celebrate the RJD’s victory.

State BJP chief Sanjay Jaiswal said the party accepted the verdict with humility. “The reasons for the defeat would be analysed and corrective steps would be taken,” he said.

Congress district unit of Muzaffarpur, Arvind Kumar Mukul, attributed the humiliating defeat of the party to the ticket selection process. “Party workers were never consulted by state Congress chief Madan Mohan Jha. Chaudhary was leader of Pappu Yadav-led Jan Adhikar Party (JAP) and was offered ticket on the recommendation of Yadav’s wife Ranjeet Ranjan, at the cost of serious leaders,” said Mukul.

Jha didn’t answer calls.