BJP-led NDA wins 13 out of 24 seats in Bihar Legislative Council elections, deals a huge blow to JDU-RJD alliance

Patna: The attempts of Rashtriya Janata Dal, Janata Dal United and Congress coming together in Bihar to defeat the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance suffered a severe setback in the Bihar Legislative Council elections.

Putting up a good show, the NDA won 13 seats in the Legislative Council elections while the Nitish Kumar led alliance managed to win just 10 of the 24 seats in the state. An independent candidate Ritlal Yadav, who is lodged in Beur jail, has won the Patna seat. Yadav is a hardcore criminal who is currently behind bars on charges of extortion, murder, kidnapping, amid others.

Nitish Kumar joined hands with Lalu Prasad after fighting against each other for over two decades to take on the resurgent BJP-led NDA. The friends-turned-foes cemented their alliance ahead of the all-important Assembly elections in the state which are likely to be held in the later half of the year.

Despite the opposition within and after extensive parleys, RJD chief Lalu Prasad, a convict in the fodder scam case and barred from contesting elections, agreed to project Nitish Kumar as the chief ministerial candidate for the polls. Accepting Nitish as the CM face, Lalu had announced that the main aim of his party is to ensure consolidation of anti-BJP votes. He also added that he is on the same platform as Nitish just to stop the BJP.

However, the results on Friday suggests that despite the coalition, BJP-led NDA still stands a strong chance in the state. It is also an eye-opener for the JDU-RJD combine as even after all the efforts that they have made to defeat the NDA, the BJP-led alliance has emerged triumphant in the Legislative Council elections.

In the 2010 Bihar Assembly elections, the BJP had contested the elections in alliance with JDU. The alliance had routed the opposition to win a landslide three-fourth majority in Bihar, bagging 206 of the 243-Assembly seats. JDU on its own won 115 seats, while BJP snapped up 91 of the 141 and 102 seats they contested respectively.

The alliance is being seen as a tough challenge for the NDA which is eyeing Bihar. However, unfazed by the challenge the BJP has claimed that it has a strong chance of making it big in the polls. BJP has been claiming that RJD and JD-U are clutching to each other like a drowning man to a twig as they are scared of NDA's rise in poll-bound Bihar.