The drubbing in the final phase of polls ensured the NDA’s worst performance in a parliamentary election since it first came to power in Bihar.

According to the Election Commission data, 30 out of the state’s 40 Lok Sabha seats went to the BJP-led coalition in the latest elections, a sharp drop compared to 39 in 2019 and lower than the tallies of 2014 (31) and 2009 (32).

The nascent INDIA bloc bagged nine seats, while one went to an Independent.

Six of the eight constituencies where polls were held in the seventh and final phase on June 1, voted for the RJD-Congress-Left alliance.

CPI(ML) Liberation general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya, whose party won two seats, its best performance in Lok Sabha polls, took note of the trend.

“Even though the INDIA coalition has underperformed in Bihar, the best performance has once again come from the south Bihar region of Shahabad and Magadh. Of the eight seats that went to the polls in this region on the last phase, INDIA has won six and put up a great fight in the other two”, he told PTI.

The Left party had contested three seats, including Nalanda, the home turf of Nitish Kumar, whose JDU held on to the citadel. However, the CPI(ML) wrested Ara from R.K. Singh, a Union minister and second-term BJP MP, and Karakat, which has voted for the NDA ever since it came into being since the 2008 delimitation.

Moreover, the RJD, which is the INDIA bloc’s largest Bihar constituent, performed below its potential, grabbing only four seats. Three of these wins were in seats that went to polls in the final phase – Patliputra, Jehanabad and Buxar.

Besides, the Congress, long seen as a spent force in the state, won three of the nine seats it contested.

The Magadh-Shahabad region also includes Aurangabad, which went to polls in the first phase, and where the RJD gave a ticket to Arun Kushwaha, a JDU turncoat, causing some resentment in the Congress which wanted to field former governor Nikhil Kumar, whose family has won the seat many times.

However, the counter-intuitive move to field Kushwaha, an OBC whose caste is known to be tilted more towards NDA, clicked in the Rajput-majority seat, which the RJD wrested from the BJP’s Sunil Kumar Singh, who was hoping for a fourth consecutive term.

Meanwhile, Bhattacharya pointed out, “Our party also had to face an Assembly by-poll in Agiaon (SC) seat in Bhojpur necessitated by the disqualification of our MLA Manoj Manzil due to conviction in a politically motivated false case, which the party won with a comfortable margin”.

More than three decades ago, the CPI(ML) achieved its first parliamentary victory from Bihar when Rameshwar Prasad won from Ara under the banner of the Indian People’s Front and tens of thousands of oppressed poor people had voted for the first time. The entry of two farmers’ leaders of CPI(ML) in the Lok Sabha will give a boost to the people’s movement for democracy, justice and development with dignity”, he added.

The INDIA bloc also registered victories in the Muslim-dominated Seemanchal region, falling in the state’s north-eastern region.

The Congress retained Kishanganj, the only Muslim majority seat in Bihar, while its senior leader and former Union minister Tariq Anwar wrested adjoining Katihar from JDU’s Dulal Chandra Goswami.

Another seat lost by the NDA is Purnea, where former MP Pappu Yadav won as an
Independent.

Yadav defeated two-term JDU MP Santosh Kushwaha while the RJD candidate Bima Bharti, a JDU turncoat, finished third and lost her deposit.