The Bihar assembly election results have provided an invaluable experience to political parties. Especially, RJD’s young dynamic leader Tejashwi Yadav who was leading in the race, against the JD(U)-BJP combine fell short in the final stages, despite emerging as the single largest party having won an impressive 75 seats. Earlier, Exit Polls predicted 90% chances for the RJD led Grand Alliance to win. On a closer analysis behind RJD’s loss in these elections, several interesting aspects came to fore. Though Tejashwi alleged irregularities in the vote count and rigging behind their loss, the young leader failed to exploit the massive anti-incumbency votes against the 15-yr rule of Nitish Kumar.
Big mistake giving Congress 70 seats?
RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav has done a big mistake by allocating 70 assembly seats to the Congress which is a part of the Grand Alliance. In reality, Congress didn’t have the potential to contest from so many seats. Despite allocating 70 seats, Congress candidates could give a stiff competition only in 45 seats. Interestingly, the NDA candidates registered an easy win from those constituencies which were contested by the Congress. On the other hand, the Congress won seats considered a bastion of the BJP. The performance of the Congress in these elections has affected around 25 seats for the RJD.
RJD betrayed by the Congress
Congress has been the primary reason for RJD’s loss in Bihar, the performance of the former was so poor that it won 15 seats less than the latter’s estimation. In 2015, when the RJD had formed a coalition with the Janata Dal (United) it won 80 having contested in 100 seats. On the contrary, the JD(U) won 75 of 144 seats. On the other hand, Chirag Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party split the votes causing a major dent for the RJD. It was expected that the RJD could’ve won more seats if the LJP hadn’t cut votes.
