Even as an embarrassed Bihar chief minister and JD(U) strongman Nitish Kumar on Thursday dismissed his party’s shocking bypoll loss as a minor jolt, the BJP piled more pressure on the JD(U) by saying the regional ally needs Narendra Modi in Bihar just as much as the BJP does.
“The Maharajganj seat was with the RJD, and they have retained it. There is nothing to worry about it. Wins and losses are a part of politics,” said Mr Kumar on his return to Patna from Delhi, where he had kept silent on Wednesday about JD(U) candidate and state education minister P.K. Shahi’s crushing defeat to RJD candidate Prabhunath Singh in the LS bypoll.
“Despite the loss, our vote percentage increased in this bypoll from that in last general election and the 2010 Assembly elections. The JD(U) had won only five out of the 18 Assembly seats in the 2009 bypolls, but the people voted JD(U) and BJP to a record victory in 2010 Assembly polls,” he added.
While an exuberant RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav, relishing Mr Singh’s victory over Mr Shahi by a whopping margin of 1.37 lakh votes, sought Mr Kumar’s resignation, the JD(U) stalwart dubbed the RJD’s optimism as misplaced. “Let them celebrate as much as they want, but this celebration is momentary,” said Mr Kumar.
But the JD(U)’s ally BJP, battling allegations that Kumar’s handpicked candidate lost due to BJP workers’ noncooperation stemming from Kumar’s resistance to Narendra Modi’s prime ministerial candidature, chose the occasion to impress upon the JD(U) the Gujarat stalwart’s significance in Bihar’s current politics.
“The message from this bypoll is that the JD(U) needs Modi in Bihar just as much as the BJP needs him. It was not the JD(U)’s loss alone, but the NDA’s loss. The JD(U)-BJP alliance is strong, and the country needs this alliance so as to provide the people governance in the right direction,” said BJP national general secretary Rajiv Pratap Rudy in Patna.
On the question of the possibility of Modi campaigning for the NDA in Bihar in the 2014 LS polls despite the JD(U)’s opposition, Rudy said: “Modi and any other NDA chief minister will campaign in any state if their services are required there”.