The National Democratic Alliance retained power in Bihar, election results showed yesterday, in what was a referendum on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s handling of Covid-19 and which may boost his chances in three more state polls next year.
Modi’s coalition won a fourth straight term in Bihar, the third-most populous state in India, which has recorded more than 8.5mn Covid-19 cases, the world’s second-highest tally after the United States.
The alliance led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won 125 seats in the 243-member Bihar assembly, Election Commission data showed after counting started on Tuesday.
The NDA crossed magic mark of 122 seats, surging ahead of the key opposition Grand Alliance known as Mahagathbandhan that could manage 110 seats even after the Tejashwi Yadav-led Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) emerged as the single largest party with 75 seats.
The BJP became the second single largest party getting 74 seats, while with five-time Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal-United (JDU) secured 43 seats. Other NDA partners Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP) and former Bihar chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi’s Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) won four seats each.
Of the Grand Alliance 110 seats, RJD’s allies Congress won 19, the Communist Party of India-Marxist-Leninist (Liberation) 12, while the Communist Party of India and the Communist Party of India-Marxist won two each.
The remaining seats were divided among Asaduddin Owaisi’s All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) which won five followed by one seat each by Chirag Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).
One Independent was also elected.
Despite the slump in numbers, Nitish Kumar, who was declared the NDA’s chief ministerial candidate by the BJP, including the prime minister Narendra and party chief J P Nadda, is set to take over the reins of the government.
The counting process took much longer than usual because more electronic voting machines were deployed to avoid crowding in polling centres as per health rules.
“This result not only reflects the faith of the poor, labourers, farmers and youth in the successful fight of the Modi government against corona but is also a lesson for those who mislead the country,” federal Home Minister Amit Shah said on Twitter. Modi, who had announced a slew of projects for Bihar days before its three-phase voting started last month, said the win showed the state’s only “aspiration” was economic development.
About 1.5mn lowly paid workers from Bihar were forced to head back home from cities such a New Delhi and Mumbai, many on foot carrying luggage and children on their shoulders, after the factories or other places they worked in shuttered following Modi’s sudden announcement of a national lockdown in late March.
Their images and videos had made national and international headlines.
Many are now starting to regain work as the economy has been almost fully reopened.
Bihar’s unemployment rate has averaged 22.6% since April, compared with 13% for the country as a whole, data from private think-tank Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy shows.
BJP leaders say Modi’s 12 rallies played a key role in the NDA victory in Bihar.
The issues raised by Modi were taken to the public through a fool-proof strategy evolved by BJP president J P Nadda. Nadda further strengthened the party’s penetration into the people’s minds through ‘Brand Modi’.
According to party leaders, the party’s massive mandate during the Covid-19 pandemic shows the people’s confidence in the prime minister Modi.
After Bihar, the BJP is expected to do well in state elections in Assam and West Bengal next year, though it has yet to form a strong base in Tamil Nadu that also votes in 2021.