NDA upbeat over election trends in Bihar

     New Delhi: Leaders of opposition National Democratic Alliance (NDA) were upbeat on Tuesday over the emerging trends of Bihar poll results that decide the fate of a key member of the coalition UPA Government. Sharad Yadav, a senior leader of the Janata Dal United (JD-U) party said that the result in favour of the NDA, of which his party was a member, was obvious. Crime-ridden Bihar, which has 243 assembly constituencies, has been under federal rule since an inconclusive election in February this year. It went to the polls again on October 18, 26 and on November 13 and 19. "We won last time also, but Ram Vilas Paswan manipulated the votes. He also manipulated the independent candidates. That counted for about thirty percent. Though we have had to do a lot of hard work this time to reach the people. We had 132 candidates with us last time. The dissolution of the previous legislative assembly was also a big issue. And the vote for change, which was manipulated by Paswan last time, was eliminated this time. So, this result was obvious," Yadav said. Yadav's colleague, Prabhunath Singh, attributed the favourable trends of the results to the anti-incumbency factor against the previous regional Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) government. "It's just a reflection of the anger in the minds of the people of Bihar against Lalu Yadav and the faith building up on Nitish Kumar over the past fifteen years. The elections were not fought on the issues of religion and caste in Bihar this time. People from all quarters unified to vote for Nitish Kumar," said Singh.

    Ram Vilas Paswan, the leader of the regional Lok Janshakti Party, said that finally the Rashtriya Janata Dal party would be ousted from power. "As far as the question of vote bank is concerned, the votes that the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) has got are the BJP's only. The votes for the NDA are not anti-Ram Vilas Paswan. The upper caste votes are not against Ram Vilas Paswan. This trend is for a change only. There was a common feeling that the rule of the RJD should be curbed. But the governance of Bihar is not a "bed of roses". It's a "bed of thorns". The scenario will be clear for you in the next six months. But, the fact is, that the RJD is will be ousted this time," said Paswan.

     The current election was being seen as a battle of survival for the RJD and its maverick leader, Lalu Prasad Yadav, who draws his support from millions of lower caste Hindus, as well as the minority Muslims. The Rashtriya Janata Dal ruled Bihar for 15 years before the February assembly polls. Those polls returned a hung assembly.

'Paswan responsible for dividing secular votes'

    Meanwhile, other political parties have started the 'blame-game', with LJP President Ramvilas Paswan being named the 'Match Ka Mujrim' (Culprit of the Match) by CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury. Yechury blamed Paswan's Third Front for dividing secular votes in the State Assembly elections, and said that the NDA had got the benefit, as people voted for a change in the political leadership. "The division in the secular vote had benefited the communal forces. The people in Bihar have chosen for a change in political leadership, the results clearly point to that," Yechury told reporters here, adding that the decision to retain Paswan in the UPA should be reconsidered. The CPI(M) Politburo member said that there is bound to be some discussion within the UPA as alliance partners are pitted against each other, and added that his party would analyse the results of the election in detail. CPI National Secretary D Raja, however, said that one person couldn't be held responsible for the poll results, as the people had decided to go with the NDA in the absence of a viable alternative. "Holding one person responsible for the defeat is totally absurd. Both the UPA and the Left failed to keep the secular votes united," he said. When asked to react to Yechury's statement about Paswan, Raja said, "He (Yechury) shouldn't have given a statement like that. It is not our job to decide who should be kept in the cabinet and who should be out. We are supporting the Government from outside, so let the UPA only decide it."