Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United) lost the two seats of Burari and Sangam Vihar that the party had contested in alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party in the Delhi Assembly election, but the overall result is likely to provide a reason for Mr. Kumar to smile.
The BJP-led NDA’s crushing defeat in Delhi would now embolden the JD(U) to drive a harder bargain for seats with its alliance partner, the BJP, in the upcoming Assembly polls in Bihar, political analysts say.
“With the recent poll debacles for BJP, first in Jharkhand and now in Delhi, Nitish Kumar would be in a stronger position to bargain for more seats in the upcoming State Assembly elections,” said political analyst Ajay Kumar. In last year’s Lok Sabha election, the BJP and JD(U) had contested an equal number of 17 seats each of Bihar’s 40 parliamentary constituencies, leaving six seats to the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP).
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The Delhi election saw the JD(U) contest an Assembly poll in alliance with the BJP outside Bihar for the first time. Mr. Kumar had camped in Delhi and shared the dais with Union Home minister Amit Shah and BJP president J. P. Nadda while campaigning for his party candidates in Burari and Sangam Vihar. Along with Mr. Kumar, several Bihar ministers and party leaders as well as State BJP leaders and the BJP’s senior leader and Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi had also campaigned in Delhi in a bid to woo the voters from the Purvanchal area of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.
When the results emerged on Tuesday, Mr. Kumar reacted with just three words: “Janata malik hai (the public is supreme)”. Deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi too was there, but the BJP leader chose not to make any comment on the Delhi poll result.
Nawal Kishore Chaudhury, another political observer, said, “In the present scenario, after the Jharkhand and Delhi poll results, Nitish Kumar could pitch for more seats than the BJP, and the BJP will have no option but to concede to his demands.” .
However, State BJP leader and party spokesperson Nikhil Anand said, “the election result of Delhi has reflected the local sentiments of the voters and it has nothing to do with Bihar politics. BJP, as well as our NDA allies JD(U) and LJP, are busy in strengthening the organisational structure at the grassroots level in Bihar. NDA will sweep the 2020 Assembly election in Bihar under the leadership of CM Nitish Kumar”.