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New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday conceded defeat in the Bihar elections.
“BJP lost only because of alliance arithmetic,” union minister Prakash Javadekar told the media.
BJP vice president Prabhat Jha added: “We failed to understand people’s mind. We will have to change our election strategy.”
(IANS)
Patna: The Grand Alliance on Sunday celebrated all across Bihar as its candidates forged ahead in more than half of the 243 seats, stunning the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Two-and-a-half hours into the vote count, trends from counting centres showed the JD-U camp was ahead in 135 seats – 13 more than the 122 needed to secure a majority in the assembly – while the BJP alliance was on the front in 92 seats.
Smaller parties, including the BSP and MIM, were on the winning track in nine constituencies.
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal-United (JD-U) leaders claimed victory and said the JD-U and its two allies – the RJD and Congress – were confident of forming the government.
JD-U leader Sharad Yadav said the Grand Alliance would win about 150 seats. “It was a very tough fight, it was a straight fight.”
JD-U’s Pavan Verma added: “The Grand Alliance has moved towards victory. It is a defeat for (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi and (BJP president) Amit Shah. We will form a government with a clear majority.”
It was one of the most bitterly contested assembly election in recent times, with Modi personally taking charge of the BJP combine’s campaign, pitting himself against Chief Minister and JD-U leader Nitish Kumar and RJD leader Lalu Prasad.
When the final results are declared, it would be the BJP’s second straight defeat in assembly elections since it was routed by the Aam Aadmi Party in Delhi in February.
Early celebrations in the BJP office in New Delhi and Patna gave way to gloom as it became clear that the initial leads its candidates took proved to be a mirage, with the Grand Alliance members clawing back in the vote count.
“I congratulate the people of Bihar for voting for development. The credit goes to Modi’s and (BJP president) Amit Shah’s leadership,” BJP spokesman Kailash Vijayvargiya told the media earlier.
Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad too said earlier: “We will win with very conclusive majority. People of Bihar need change.”
BJP leaders ordered a huge quantity of sweets, saying they were sure of a victory. In no time, the atmosphere became sombre in the BJP office here.
BJP candidates were leading in 74 seats, former chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi’s Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) in four, the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) of Ramvilas Paswan in nine and the Rashtriya Lok Sama Party (RLSP) in five seats each.
In the Grand Alliance, the JD-U was ahead in 64 seats, the RJD in 55 and the Congress in 12 seats. The RJD and the JD-U fielded 101 candidates each and the Congress 41.
The BJP contested 160 seats and its allies the LJP 40, the RLSP 23 and the HAM 20 seats.
The bitterly contested five-phase electoral battle began on October 12 and ended on November 5.
(IANS)
New Delhi: Bihar’s bitterly-contested staggered elections ended on Thursday evening, with exit polls sharply split on who would get to rule the state: the BJP-led alliance led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi or Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s Grand Alliance.
While three of the nine surveys at the end of five rounds of polling predicted a clear win for the Bharatiya Janata Party and another gave an upper hand to it, five exit polls forecast a narrow or clear majority in the 243-member house to the Grand Alliance.
Despite the exit poll suspense, leaders of both the BJP and the Grand Alliance — the Janata Dal-United (JD-U) of Nitish Kumar and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) of Lalu Prasad — claimed they were sure of victory.
“We are hopeful of getting a clear majority,” said BJP spokesman Nalin Kohli. “Although the (exit polls) ranges are close, I won’t arrive at any hasty assessment,” he said, indicating cautious optimism in the BJP.
Former chief minister Lalu Prasad, however, insisted that the Grand Alliance, which also includes the Congress, was poised to win 190 seats.
“The entire backward community of Bihar has voted for us,” he told the media in Patna. “We salute them for this.”
None of the exit polls, however, gave either alliance such a huge victory as claimed by Lalu Prasad.
While Today’s Chanakya gave 155 of the 243 seats to the BJP and its three allies, NewsX-CNX said the JD-U and its allies would get 135 seats. It forecast a mere 83 seats to the JD-U, the RJD and the Congress.
In contrast, NewsX said the BJP and its allies — the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP), the Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) and the Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP) — would win only 95 seats.
Other exit polls predicted a close outcome.
Any party or combine would need 122 seats to secure a wafer thin majority in the 243-member assembly. The millions of votes polled in the five rounds of polling from October 12 — about 60 percent of the 66.8 million electorate voted — will be counted on Sunday.
An India Today-Cicero exit poll predicted a hung assembly, with the BJP-led alliance winning 120 seats to 117 by the Grand Alliance. It gave the BJP alliance 113-127 seats and the Grand Alliance 111-123 seats. Four to eight seats could go to other parties.
A Dainik Jagran exit poll said the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) would get a majority with 130 seats as compared to 97 for the Grand Alliance.
The Times Now-CVoter survey gave 122 seats to the Grand Alliance and 111 to the NDA.
The ABP News gave the BJP and its allies 130 seats compared to 108 to the JD-U-RJD-Congress alliance.
News Nation also gave the JD-U and its allies an edge, with 120-124 seats, while the BJP and its allies could get 115-119 seats.
India TV-C Voter also predicted 111 seats to the BJP combine and 122 to the Grand Alliance.
Even before the exit polls were telecast, JD-U spokesman K.C. Tyagi told IANS in Patna that the Grand Alliance was confident of winning a “stupendous mandate”.
Neither Modi or BJP president Amit Shah — who micro-managed the Bihar election — nor Nitish Kumar spoke to the media.
Earlier on Thursday, nearly 60 percent of the 1.55 crore electorate turned out to vote in the last of the 57 constituencies spread across seven districts: Kishangaj, Purnea, Araria, Katihar, Saharasa, Madhepura and Supaul.
Despite widespread apprehensions, the staggered election passed off peacefully, even in areas considered to be strongholds of Maoists who had called for an election boycott.
The voter enthusiasm was evident on Thursday too, with tens of thousands queuing up at polling booths even before they opened at 7 a.m. A total of 827 candidates were in the fray.
Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi’s Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) contested from six constituencies, making its foray into Bihar.
Earlier on Thursday, the stock market dipped over a possible lack of clear mandate in Bihar.
The Bihar election is a big test for the BJP, whose winning streak since the 2014 Lok Sabha polls was halted by the Aam Aadmi Party in Delhi in February this year.
(IANS)
New Delhi: Upping the ante against Amit Shah after his “fireworks in Pakistan” remark, JD(U) and Congress today approached the Election Commission demanding that the BJP chief be barred from entering Bihar for “inciting communal tension” till the election process ends.
Taking strong objection to BJP’s poll advertisements in the state, they accused the party of using “lies and false propaganda” to vitiate the atmosphere and demanded that an FIR be registered against Shah as well Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his quota remarks.
Slamming Shah’s yesterday remarks that if BJP loses in Bihar, there will be fireworks in Pakistan, JD(U) general secretary K C Tyagi said, “Shah’s remarks are inflammatory.
“A case should be registered against him and he should be debarred from entering Bihar till the poll process is over. He is a habitual conspirator. He was earlier also debarred from entering Gujarat by the court.”
A delegation of Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala, spokesperson Ajoy Kumar and JD(U) general secretary K C Tyagi met Chief Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi and submitted a memorandum, accusing the BJP of “vitiating” the electoral process by “promoting communal tension” through its advertisements.
It sought action including “complete withdrawal” of these ads and “prosecution” of the perpetrators.
Submitting a list of advertisements issued by the BJP in Bihar including one which accuses Nitish Kumar-led of “snatching the plate of dalits” and accuses it of trying to carve five per cent reservation for a particular community from the quota for SC/ST/OBC, the delegation demanded quick action from the poll watchdog.
The parties complained to the EC on this matter on a day when Prime Minister Narendra raised the pitch on this issue addressing a rally in Lalu Prasad’s home turf Gopalganj and citing a speech of Nitish Kumar in Parliament allegedly favouring sub quota for Muslims.
Tyagi also said that the Election Commission should register a case against Modi for the repeated reference of his belonging to Extremely Backward Castes (EBC) in the same manner as the Election Commission had lodged a case against RJD chief Lalu Prasad for his forward versus back election remark earlier.
They also cited two more ads. While one alleges that Lashkar-e-Toiba and ISI terrorists are “thriving in Bihar due to negligence” of JD-U leaders, the other talks of Bihar government’s role in “delayed” arrest of Yasin Bhatkal from Nepal border.
The delegation alleged that it is a “shameless” attempt by the BJP at spreading “false propaganda” and “creating communal tension”.
The Nitish Kumar-led alliance claimed that one of the ads say that RJD, JD(U) and Congress leaders are “giving sanctuary” to terrorists to appease a particular community for votes.
The name of the particular community becomes clear when seen in context to previous day’s ad, which spoke about Muslim community appeasement by RJD-JD(U) and Congress by ‘robbing the plate of dalits’, the delegation alleged.
On the ad regarding Bhatkal arrest issue, the delegation said that it questions whether the ‘delay’ was to make a particular community feel the “government’s benevolence”.
“The connection between letting Bhatkar escape and a community is done to connect Bhatkal with the Muslim community,” they alleged.
“In the on-going elections in Bihar, the BJP has been promoting lies, false propaganda and communal tensions through its advertisements. This has resulted in vitiating the electoral process by promoting communal tension….
“As you will see from these ads, it is a shameless attempt at spreading false propaganda and creating communal tension by use of misuse of select words in ambiguous contexts that could be interpreted for multiple factions for inciting violence between the two communities,” the delegation said in its memorandum.
Terming these ads as “blatant violation” of the provisions of the Representation of People Act, 1951 and several provisions of the Indian Penal Code, the delegation said, “The EC must demand a complete withdrawal of the advertisement and prosecution should be initiated against the perpetrators at the earliest.”
(Agencies)
The leaders of the Samajwadi Janata Dal, a bloc of six parties, in Delhi on Monday. Photo: PTI
New Delhi: Leaders of the Janata Parivar raised the issue of black money both inside and outside parliament Monday, hitting out at the NDA government for failing to fulfil its promise of bringing back illegal cash stashed abroad. They also accused it of fomenting communal tensions.
Political heavyweights from the Janata Parivar, comprising the Samajwadi Party, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), the Janata Dal-United (JD-U) and the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) gathered in the Jantar Mantar area in the heart of the capital to address a rally denouncing the Narendra Modi-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government.
“Why has the NDA government failed to fulfil its promises made before the (Lok Sabha) election?” asked JD-U leader Nitish Kumar.
“Where is the black money it promised to bring back (from abroad)?”
“The prime minister has campaigned across the nation. He had said that he would bring back black money; what happened to the promises he made? They are spending money on religious conversions, they made false promises during poll campaign, and now they are diverting people’s attention,” said the former Bihar chief minister.
He accused Modi of not acting tough against right-wing Hindu groups charged with religious conversion of Christians and Muslims and said the country should not be divided on religious grounds.
Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Lalu Prasad were equally critical.
Mulayam Singh said: “They promised jobs to all the youth and Rs.15 lakh to everyone (from the black money they would bring back). They even asked people to open bank accounts. But where is the money?”
“The BJP’s conspiracy is to engineer riots so that attention is shifted away from the government’s failures,” said the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister.
“The Agra incident was just a beginning. They will do such things across the country,” Mulayam Singh said, referring to the conversion of 300 Muslims families in his state.
Lalu Prasad alleged that Modi was attempting to cause religious divide in the country by tacitly encouraging religious conversions.
“The minorities have also fought for India’s independence and the Modi government engages in ‘ghar vapsi’ (home-coming),” he said.
JD-U chief Sharad Yadav said: “Janata Parivar is protesting at the venue (Jantar Mantar) against the government over black money. You promised good days, employment”.
The issue was raised again in both houses by members of these parties. In the Lok Sabha, they also staged a walkout over the issue. Members of the Samajwadi Party and the Trinamool Congress also held protests in the parliament premises.
In the lower house, Mulayam Singh accused the government and Prime Minister Modi of not fulfilling the promises made to people who voted him to power.
Members of the RJD and the JD-U also demanded a statement from the prime minister over the issue.
The SP chief said promises were made that farmers would get money in their accounts and that land encroached by China and Pakistan would be taken back. But “these promises have not been fulfilled”.
Both houses of parliament have debated the issue of black money during the winter session.
(IANS)
Patna: Bihar will witness the biggest political realignment of the decade ahead of the assembly polls in 2015 with likely merger of Lalu Prasad’s Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the ruling Janata Dal-United to counter the surging BJP.
“After results of Haryana and Maharashtra assembly polls, Lalu Prasad and JD-U president Sharad Yadav and former chief minister Nitish Kumar have agreed in principle to merge the two parties to take on the BJP,” a RJD leader close to Lalu Prasad said Monday.
This development has come nearly four months after Lalu Prasad and Nitish Kumar joined hands in Bihar and 10 days after leaders of the Samajwadi Party, the JD-U, the RJD and the Janata Dal-Secular announced a united front to counter the Narendra Modi government at the Centre.
A JD-U leader said: “Merger of the RJD and the JD-U is on cards to strengthen secular forces…”
He said none other than Nitish Kumar himself said that “we resolved to work together and in the near future there is a strong possibility we might merge and form one party”.
According to the JD-U and the RJD leaders here, if both parties contest next state assembly polls as an alliance, there will be serious problem of seat sharing.
The JD-U, which has 118 legislators in the house, will bargain for more seats and the RJD, which has 23 legislators, will put its claim for more seats on the basis of its performance in the last Lok Sabha polls.
In August, Lalu Prasad and Nitish Kumar jointly campaigned during the by-elections in Bihar. The JD-U, the RJD and the Congress won six of the 10 assembly seats.
That was the first time the two leaders came together after a gap of 20 years. It was in the 1991 Lok Sabha polls that Lalu Prasad and Nitish Kumar last campaigned together.
Lalu Prasad then said he and Nitish Kumar wanted to send a strong message across the country to unite non-BJP forces.
Nitish Kumar, who quit as Bihar’s chief minister in May after his party was routed in the general elections, has been repeatedly targeting Modi.
He said Modi has failed to bring back black money stashed abroad by Indians within 100 days of taking power.
In a bid to expose Modi’s double speak, Nitish Kumar said: “Modi had promised to bring back black money after being elected to power. But he has failed to do that even after 150 days.”
The JD-U ended a 17-year alliance with the BJP last year after Modi was declared the prime ministerial candidate of the party.