E-Paper
Bihar assembly elections: Friendly fights and rebellions rendered moot in rout
The ruling National Democratic Alliance’s landslide victory polled substantially higher numbers across the state, securing margins of such extent that the Mahagathbandhan’s internal coordination issues were largely irrelevant to the outcome
The ruling National Democratic Alliance’s landslide victory polled substantially higher numbers across the state, securing margins of such extent that the Mahagathbandhan’s internal coordination issues were largely irrelevant to the outcome.
The NDA surged ahead with 202 seats whilst the INDIA bloc trailed at 35 of 243 constituencies. Vote tallies across 15 key constituencies—where the INDIA bloc parties either were in contest amongst themselves or had to fend off rebellion—show that the opposition bloc could, at best, secure only two seats if it kept its flock together. In nine constituencies, there were friendly fights among the key constituents of INDIA bloc while in rest there were rebels from both the coalitions , who played spoilsport.
The Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance, formed in 2023 to counter BJP dominance, includes the Rashtriya Janata Dal, Congress, Communist Party of India, CPM, CPI(ML) and others. Pre-poll seat-sharing negotiations faltered, leading to scenarios where allies fielded candidates against each other and disgruntled leaders ran as rebels.
In Kahalgaon for instance, JD(U)’s Shubhanand Mukesh secured 1,30,767 votes by the end of counting against RJD’s Rajnish Bharti’s 80,655 and Congress’s Pravin Kushwaha’s 10,083. Even combining both INDIA tallies yields 90,738—falling short by 40,029 votes. Narkatiaganj exemplified the pattern too: BJP’s Sanjay Kumar Pandey polled 1,00,044 votes, exceeding RJD and Congress’s combined 78,974 by 21,070 votes.
Seven other seats showed similar dynamics. In Sultanganj, the combined RJD-Congress tally trailed JD(U) by 28,382 votes. Raja Pakar seat saw Congress and CPI together fall 35,199 votes short of JD(U)’s winner. Vaishali’s combined RJD-Congress total lost by 12,195 votes to JD(U). Bihar Sharif’s Congress-CPI combination trailed BJP by 26,432 votes. Sikandara saw RJD and Congress together fall 22,824 votes behind HAM(S). Chainpur’s RJD-VIP total lost by 2,218 votes to JD(U). Only in Bachhwara seat would unity have helped: BJP’s Surendra Mehta’s 1,00,343 votes fell short of the potential Congress-CPI combined 1,06,090 by 5,747 votes.
Rebel candidates proved equally inconsequential. In Mahua, expelled RJD leader Tej Pratap Yadav drew 35,703 votes under the Janshakti Janata Dal banner while RJD’s official nominee polled 42,644, but LJP (RV)’s 87,641 beat their combined 78,347 by 9,294 votes.
Five other rebel-affected seats remained beyond reach. Dehri saw the combined RJD official and rebel total trail LJP (RV) by 35,968 votes. Barhara’s combined RJD official and rebel tally lost to BJP by 14,403 votes. Dinara’s gap stood at 10,834 votes. Jamalpur showed a 36,288-vote chasm despite the rebel. Former JD(U) minister Khurshid alias Firoze Alam’s desertion narrowed margins but JD(U) still led CPI(ML) by 39,160 votes in Sikta constituency. Parihar offered the sole exception: BJP’s Gayatri Devi won the polls with 82,644 votes, but would have lost to a united RJD total of 1,13,989 comprising official nominee Smita Gupta’s 48,534 and rebel Ritu Jaiswal’s 65,455.
