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Loss of face for Nitish as JD(U) loses Kurhani bypoll, BJP says Bihar CM lost out on EBC votes

This was the 1st poll battle between JD(U) & BJP after Nitish switched sides to form govt with RJD in August. Kedar Gupta defeats ex-minister Manoj Kushwaha by over 3,600 votes.

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Patna: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar was left red-faced as the Janata Dal (United) lost the Kurhani assembly bypoll in a tight contest Thursday that saw electoral fortunes swing wildly before the seat went to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

In a see-saw battle that lasted 23 rounds of counting, BJP’s Kedar Prasad Gupta won by over 3,600 votes as he got 76,722 votes as against 73,073 votes garnered by his JD(U) rival Manoj Kushwaha.

The victory was sweet for Gupta as he had lost from the same seat to Anil Sahani of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) by a margin of about 750 votes in the 2020 Bihar election.

The bypoll was held as the seat fell vacant after Sahani was disqualified from the Bihar assembly in October after his conviction in a financial irregularity case.

“Nitish Kumar could not ensure our victory when he was with us. He also could not ensure his party’s victory with six of his allies and a VIP candidate — a dummy candidate to make inroads into BJP votes, It speaks volumes on the plight of Nitish Kumar’s popularity on the ground level,” BJP state president Sanjay Jaiswal said.

The Grand Alliance’s defeat came soon after the November bypolls in Mokama and Gopalganj which were retained by          the RJD and the BJP, although with a reduced margin.

Kurhani was the first direct battle between the JD(U) and the BJP after Nitish switched sides to join hands with the RJD in August. Adding to JD(U)’s embarrassment is the fact that Kushwaha was not a pushover candidate — he has been a member of the Bihar Assembly from 2005 to 2015.

“JD(U) lost the seat because of Nitish Kumar. He should own up responsibility and quit like he did in 2014. The Extremely Backward caste (EBC) votes over which Nitish stakes claim is now with the BJP,” BJP Rajya Sabha MP Sushil Kumar Modi claimed.

The Kurhani bypoll was a high-pitched battle as Nitish, his deputy Tejashwi Yadav as well as nearly all Bihar ministers and leaders of the Grand Alliance had campaigned in support of the JD(U) candidate. Even as 13 candidates were in the poll fray, the fight was between the BJP and the JD(U).

While Nitish had accused the BJP of trying to create communal fissures in the society, Tejashwi had reached out to the voters in Kurhani saying that his father and RJD chief Lalu Prasad would be eager to know the bypoll results once he recovers from an operation.

In the opposition camp, the BJP mostly relied on local leaders for the campaigning while Chirag Paswan of the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) took out a road show in support of Gupta.

The RJD has officially not commented about the bypoll result, but party insiders said the mood was sombre. “Nitishji should have left the seat for the RJD instead of forcing us to give up,” a RJD minister said.


Also Read: As parties across states woo voters with lure of free power, Nitish gives it a thumbs down


Did prohibition hit JD(U)’s prospects?

One of the much discussed topics has been whether Nitish’s decision in 2016 to prohibit liquor in Bihar resulted in this electoral loss.

“I was in Kurhani for three days and one thing I realised is that apart from caste votes, there is a separate vote bank which has been hit by anti-liquor laws. I was told that in Kurhani itself over 6,000 persons were arrested in this connection and swore against Nitish,” BJP MLA Haribhushan Thakur told ThePrint.

Even ruling allies Congress and Jitan Ram Manjhi-led Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) had pleaded to Nitish to go easy on anti-liquor laws. Worse, the Bihar Police lathi-charged toddy tappers who were demanding restoration of their rights to sell toddy in the last week of November.

‘We need to learn a lot from the Kurhani result. First lesson: ‘The public is not according to us, but we have to walk according to the public (sic),” JD(U) parliamentary board chief Upendra Kushwaha tweeted in Hindi.

JD(U) spokesperson Neeraj Kumar denied that the bypoll result is a rejection of liquor laws, “Bypolls are basically fought on local issues. We will review the bypoll (results) to study what went wrong,” Kumar said.

Incidentally, Nitish has always claimed that he banned liquor on the demand of women in Bihar. “But that is not working in terms of votes,” a JD(U) MLA said.

(Edited by Tony Rai)


Also Read: Temple for Sita, votes for Nitish? Hindu religious turn in Bihar politics as JD(U) fends off BJP


 

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