JD-U, BJP win two seats each in legislative council polls

Patna: Months before assembly elections are held in Bihar, challenger BJP has bested the Nitish Kumar and Lalu Yadav combine in elections to 24 seats in the Bihar Legislative Council. 152 contestants were in the fray for the 24 council seats.

The Bihar Council polls’ results suggest that despite the coalition, BJP-led NDA still stands a strong chance in the state.

The biennial election to the Bihar Legislative Council from local authorities is considered as semi-final before crucial Assembly poll in September-October this year.

JDU on its own won 115 seats, while BJP snapped up 91 of the 141 and 102 seats they contested respectively.

Both Nistish Kumar and Lalu Prasad had been claiming to rout BJP, but received major blow after the announcements on Friday, where BJP emerged victorious. After days of haggling, Lalu Prasad had accepted Nitish Kumar as secular alliance candidate for Chief Ministership mainly due to Congress tilt towards Kumar.

In another ominous sign for the Chief Minister who has all along touted his “good governance” mantra to differentiate himself from the “Jungle Raj” of the ’90s, Reetlal Yadav, a hardcore criminal now lodged in the Beur Jail and ex- RJD leader, won from Patna as an independent candidate.

Nitish-led JD-U, meanwhile, had won in Nalanda, Muzaffarpur, and Gaya and was leading in Nawada and Bhagalpur.

In Darbhanga, sitting RJD MLC Misrilal Yadav lost to BJP’s Sunil Singh.

The ruling Janata Dal-United (JD-U), which was confident of crushing the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA), won five seats, the RJD got four seats and the Congress one seat.

In the NDA camp, BJP had fielded candidates at 18 places, LJP of Union minister Ramvilas Paswan 4 and Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP) of Union minister of State Upendra Kushwaha at two.