Bihar assembly election results: Fight between two ‘D’s, says BJP

By late evening, the RJD and JD-U had won 51 seats each and were leading in 29 and 20 respectively. The Congress had won 20 seats and was ahead in seven.

On the verge of being written off as also ran after his party’s dismal performance in the 2010 Assembly polls when it was restricted to a humiliating 22 seats in the 243-member Bihar House, Mr. Prasad pulled off an emphatic victory for the RJD, which was all set to emerge as the table topper. Incidentally, Axis’s prediction had been closest to the Aam Aadmi’s Party’s final landslide tally of 67 seats in Delhi earlier this year. “We accept it with humility”, Nitish Kumar said in his first comments.

The result is a setback for Modi because it damages his prestige, makes parliament more of an obstacle, and complicates politics within his ruling alliance, according to said Milan Vaishnav of Carnegie Endowment for worldwide Peace. The victory of the Grand Alliance has come at a time when intolerance is on the rise.

BJP leaders gracefully admitted defeat in stark contrast to their abusive campaign against the Grand Alliance.

Hailing Nitish Kumar’s leadership, Lalu Prasad said: “I congratulate Nitish Kumar”.

“The results show where the country is heading”.

Kumar, who will now likely get a new term as Chief Minister, campaigned on a platform of development. “The writing was always on the wall”.

“The role of the prime minister is to govern the country, and not become the lead campaigner in a state election”, one senior BJP state leader said, asking not to be named. Its vice president Prabhat Jha said: “We failed to understand people’s mind. We will have to change our election strategy”. He reminded that in 2014 Lok Sabha election too Axis had done the biggest pan-Indian survey.

JD-U’s Pavan Verma targeted Modi. “It is a defeat for Modi and (BJP president) Amit Shah”.

On Thursday, Modi will seek to deflect from his loss as he heads to London, where he will meet British Prime Minister David Cameron and the Queen, and is expected to give a sell-out speech at London’s Wembley stadium.

The Congress, the third ally, put up candidates in 41 places. The BJP alliance got 38 percent.

As the vote count began at 8 a.m. across Bihar, initially it seemed that the BJP and its allies were forging ahead.

It is the BJP’s second straight defeat in state elections since the Aam Aadmi Party routed it in Delhi in February. For the grand Alliance, victory means an endorsement of JD(U) leader Nitish Kumar’s brand of developmental politics and also proves that an united opposition can, under the right circumstances, take on the BJP-led NDA.