Re: A revolution in poverty stricken Bihar: Biharis kick out Lallu Parsad
Interesting article. Not sure if this info is coming from Biharis or pro-BJP journalists.
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Lalu loses, Bihar wins**
The Asian Age India | Kumar Uttam
Patna: The 15-year-long Lalu-Rabri era ended in Bihar on Tuesday with the people of the state scripting history by turning off the Rashtriya Janata Dal’s lantern.
Mr Lalu Prasad Yadav lost his bastion to friend-turned-foe Nitish Kumar, who secured a very comfortable majority in the 243-member Assembly with close to 60 per cent of the seats.
Mr Yadav, who had vowed that his party would rule Bihar for more than 20 years, had his dreams shattered by the electorate in the October-November elections, and when the final tally was announced by Tuesday evening it was clear he had lost ground considerably since the Assembly election held nine months ago. He had 75 MLAs elected to the Assembly the last time, while this time only 54 RJD MLAs were elected. This is an all-time low for the RJD in the state. His alliance partner, the Congress, suffered less: instead of the 10 MLAs who won in the last election, its tally this time was just one less: nine.
Besides the Janata Dal (United), which saw its numbers jump from 57 in February to 87 now, its BJP ally also gained: from 36 it has increased its strength to 55, an addition of 19 seats.
The big loser on Tuesday — apart from Mr Lalu Prasad Yadav — was Mr Ram Vilas Paswan. With his flock of MLAs cut to 11, much less than half the 28 he had in February, and with Mr Nitish Kumar’s landslide win, Mr Paswan turned from being a powerful “kingmaker” to a marginal player in Bihar’s current political arithmetic.
Chief minister Rabri Devi, who was trailing in some of the initial rounds of counting, barely managed to retain her Raghopur seat by just over 5,000 votes, while some of her ministerial colleagues were trounced.
Mr Nitish Kumar, who had narrowly missed coming to power after the last election, had been projected from early in the campaign this time as the NDA’s chief ministerial candidate. But the scale of his landslide appeared to have taken both him and his BJP allies by surprise.
Mr Kumar is due to arrive in Patna from New Delhi on Wednesday, after which he is expected to be formally elected legislature party leader at a meeting of the newly-elected NDA MLAs. The swearing-in is to take place at Patna’s Gandhi Maidan at 1 pm on Thursday. There is no word yet on whether more ministers will be sworn in along with him, and what the size of his government will be.
Speaking to reporters at his New Delhi home on Tuesday, he declared that his topmost priority would be good governance. “Right from day one we will get cracking. The government will work for all sections of society, be it Hindu, Christian, Muslim, dalit or extreme backward classes…” he said. “People voted against misgovernance, injustice… In a democracy, not to allow an alliance with the majority of MLAs to form a government also did not go down well with the people, and the verdict is a reflection of their anger,” he added, referring to the dissolution of the Assembly following the February elections.
He parried questions on whether he would pursue corruption cases against arch-rival Lalu Yadav and if he would have a deputy chief minister from the BJP.
In Patna, waiting till late afternoon by when nearly all the results were in, RJD supremo Lalu Yadav finally conceded defeat and, congratulating Mr Nitish Kumar (whom he described as his younger brother), pledged that his party would play the role of a “responsible Opposition”. Mr Yadav acknowledged that the mandate had gone against the RJD, but went on to say that the NDA had “succeeded in fooling” the people, particularly those belonging to the backward classes, depressed sections and minorities by putting the blame for all the ills prevailing in the state on his party’s 15-year rule.
“Victory and defeat keep coming in politics,” he said, and then added: “I feel relieved… The people of Bihar gave us 15 years to rule and now they will test those who have promised to banish crime in three months and create an environment to stop the flight of labour and students outside,” he told reporters outside the chief minister’s 1, Anne Marg residence here.
He sounded dismissive about Mr Paswan, his colleague in the Union Cabinet, saying “he was nowhere in the battle”. Mr Lalu Yadav added: “I bear no grudge against anybody.”