Bihar came out as a saviour for the BJP-led NDA in the Lok Sabha polls on Tuesday.

While big states such as Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra capitulated to a resurgent Congress-led INDIA bloc, Bihar bucked the trend to provide 30 vital seats (out of the total 40) and a lifeline to the ruling combine.

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar’s JDU topped the poll result chart in the state by bagging 12 seats out of the 16 it contested.

It was a sweet revenge for Nitish, who was the key architect of the INDIA bloc. He had brought the main Opposition parties on one platform last year, only to leave it seven months later after allegedly being sidelined by the Congress.

Sources said the Congress was reaching out to Nitish for a post-poll alliance in an attempt to form an INDIA government at the Centre and was considering giving him the position of deputy Prime Minister or even Prime Minister.

Asked about the move to engage Nitish, senior Congress leader and spokesperson Pawan Khera gave a cryptic reply. “Every such thing that is discussed behind the curtains is not made public. Everything is possible in politics. Everybody is welcome in it,” Khera said.

However, JDU national spokesperson K.C. Tyagi asserted that the party was a part of the NDA and was “standing strongly with it. There is not going to be any change in the leadership at the Centre or in Bihar”.

The BJP managed to win 12 out of the 17 seats it contested in Bihar. Though it could not match its 2019 performance when it had clinched all 17 it had contested, it was still better than neighbouring Uttar Pradesh and Bengal. BJP ministers Giriraj Singh and Nityanand Rai won from their respective Begusarai and Ujiarpur seats.

NDA partner Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) headed by Chirag Paswan won all the five seats it contested while Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) leader and former chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi emerged victorious in the Gaya seat.

Celebrating the victory with party workers and leaders, Chirag said: “It was a tough fight because we had entered the poll field with a new name and symbol of our party, but the public trusted us. The people expressed faith in the leadership of our Prime Minister. Our chief minister played a very important role in these polls and his presence strengthened the alliance.”

The Bihar results also show that welfare and development factors worked for the people. Various central and state schemes, including free food grains, tap water, toilets, housing and gas cylinders, have reached the grassroots, swinging the voters. To top it, the BJP could not rely on religion-based politics to the hilt as Nitish kept assuring in his rallies that he would always stand for communal harmony.

The RJD, Bihar’s main Opposition party, could win only four out of 23 it contested despite Tejashwi Prasad Yadav spearheading a high-voltage INDIA campaign.

RJD chief Lalu Prasad’s eldest daughter and Rajya Sabha member Misa Bharti was third-time lucky from the Patliputra parliamentary constituency and defeated incumbent MP Ram Kripal Yadav. Lalu’s second daughter Rohini Acharya, who contested from the Saran constituency, lost to BJP leader Rajiv Pratap Rudy.

The RJD’s poor performance indicated that the people could not get over the fear of the “jungle raj” during its 1990–2005 rule, which was raked up by the NDA leaders.

The Congress won three out of the nine constituencies it contested. All three seats — Kishanganj, Katihar and Sasaram — came from the area that Rahul had touched during his Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra.

The CPI-ML, with its headquarters in Patna, will enter the Lok Sabha for the first time by winning two seats — Bhojpur and Karakat. Its candidate Sudama Prasad
defeated BJP leader and Union minister R.K. Singh in Ara.