By Alok Mohit
PATNA: In a major setback to the Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar-led Mahagathbandhan government, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) wrested the Kurhani assembly seat from the ruling alliance in the byelection on Thursday.
BJP’s Kedar Gupta, who had lost the seat in the 2020 assembly polls assembly Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) candidate Anil Kumar Sahani by a slender margin of about 700 votes, defeated JD(U) candidate Manoj Kushwaha by 3,649 votes. Gupta had won the seat for the BJP in 2015.
In the closely contested byelection held on December 5, Gupta got 76,722 votes against 73,073 by Kushwaha.
While the presence of AIMIM’s Ghulam Murtaza, who got 3,202 votes, and rebel RJD candidate Shekhar Sahani, who polled 3,716 votes, could have made a dent in the ‘Mahagatbandhan’ vote bank, Vikassheel Insaan Party(VIP) nominee Nilabh Kumar may have narrowed the BJP’s victory margin. Nilabh Kumar, who polled 9,988 votes, belongs to Bhumihar caste, considered to be traditionally voters of the saffron party.
The byelection in Kurhani was necessitated following disqualification of Sahani from the Bihar assembly after a Delhi court awarded him three-year jail term in the LTC scam case.
Stakes were high for the JD(U) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the byelection as both parties were pitted in a direct contest for the first time since the JD(U) snapped ties with BJP in August this year to form the ‘Mahagathbandhan government’ with Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and other parties.
Campaigning in Kurhani by Nitish Kumar had made the byelection into a battle for prestige. Even JD(U) national president Lalan Singh had been camping in Kurhani for most of the time to save this seat. Deputy chief minister and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav had laso played an emotional card while electioneering in the constituency. Addressing an election rally, Tejashwi had said Kurhani’s victory would add to the recovery of his father Lalu Prasad, who underwent kidney transplant on December 5, the day bypoll was held.
The byelection result appears to have signalled rumblings in the ruling alliance with Congress legislature party leader Ajit Sharma blaming the defeat on prohibition, which has become an issue of prestige for the chief minister. “Upset with the liquor ban, Pasi, a Dalit community, whose traditional occupation is tapping toddy, did not vote for the JD(U) candidate,” he said.
JD(U) Parliamentary Board president Upendra Kushwaha, who was one of the principal campaigners of his party, said the party needed to learn a lot from the defeat. “The first lesson is, we must follow the people and their will and not expect the other way round,” Kushwaha said in a tweet.
RJD spokesperson Shyama Rajak, however, said his party accepted the people’s verdict. “We respect people’s verdict. We will seat together and analyse the factors responsible for our loss,” he said.
Upbeat over the victory, BJP leaders said the Kurhani result was an affirmation of the people’s faith in the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and “rejection of the Mahagathbandhan which came to power by fraud”.
Senior BJP leader and MLC Samrat Chaudhary said the BJP’s win was the beginning of a “Nitish-mukt Bihar”.
Former deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi said Nitish Kumar should take moral responsibility for the defeat and resign.
