The Grand Alliance of Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad on Sunday humbled the BJP and its allies in the Bihar Assembly elections, notching up a stunning 178 seats against 58 mustered by the National Democratic Alliance.

The Grand Alliance surpassed the NDA in all regions of the State, registering a margin of victory that confounded predictions that this would be a closely fought contest. Nitish Kumar, who will be Bihar’s Chief Minister for a third term, described the poll as a milestone, which will shape the national political discourse.

Vote share The cumulative vote share of the Grand Alliance was 41.9 per cent while that of the BJP-led NDA stood at 34.2 per cent. Significantly, the BJP’s own vote share, at 24.5 per cent, was not a drastic reduction from the 29.86 per cent it secured over a year ago, in the Lok Sabha poll. Also, it was higher than the 16.49 per cent that the BJP notched up in 2010. In that election, it was enough to secure as many as 91 seats for the BJP. But this time the party managed only 53 seats despite increasing its vote share by about nine percentage points.

In contrast, two constituents of the Grand Alliance were able to secure more seats without corresponding increases in vote shares. The RJD managed to secure 80 seats with an 18.4 per cent vote share; in 2010, it won only 22 seats with a similar vote share (18.84 per cent). At 6.7 per cent, the Congress vote share was down two percentage points from its 2010 performance (8.37 per cent). But the seats it won increased from four to 27. As for the JD (U), it secured fewer seats (71 as opposed to 115 in 2010), but it did so with only 16.8 per cent of the vote as against 22.58 per cent in 2010.

Turnaround in trends The initial trends put out by many television channels suggested either a cliff-hanger or a BJP victory, keeping politicians and analysts on the edge and unsettling Nitish Kumar, as he admitted later. But as the counting progressed, there was a gradual turnaround that culminated in a comprehensive victory, suggesting that the channels may have simply got the initial trends wrong.

Having won the election, both Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad were quick to underline the larger import of the election result, which they suggested was a catalyst that would alter the face of national politics.

Lalu Prasad, who has resurrected the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) to its former glory of being the single largest political party in the Bihar Assembly with 80 seats, did not miss the opportunity to outline his political agenda against the BJP.

“I will go to Varanasi where Narendra Modi claimed he has been summoned by Mother Ganges… I will light my lantern to find out what he has done for the holy city. That will be the beginning of our mammoth social movement against the BJP. Their communal agenda, playing politics on our sacred Mother (cow) and dividing Hindus and Muslims, have been rejected by the wise people of Bihar,” said Lalu, addressing a press conference with Nitish Kumar and Bihar Congress chief Ashok Chowdhury.

While questions were being asked on whether Lalu’s superior performance would push him to make unreasonable demands on Nitish Kumar, including seeking the post of Deputy Chief Minister for one of his sons, both leaders dismissed them as speculative. “ Woh dono abhi bachche hain. Unko seekhne do (my two sons are still very young. Let them learn first),” said Lalu.

BJP leaders to meet There was a complete hush at the BJP headquarters where Amit Shah was closeted for long with his campaign team and party general secretaries. The meeting of Home Minister Rajnath Singh with RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat led to speculation about whether Shah would get a fresh term as party president; his tenure ends in December.

A meeting of the BJP’s highest decision-making body — the parliamentary board — has been called for Monday. Some senior leaders, such as party general secretary Murlidhar Rao, have sought disciplinary action against party MPs Shatrughan Sinha and RK Singh for making “damaging” statements during the campaign.

Also read: As it happened: The grand sweep

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