Patna:
Nitish Kumar will be the Chief Minister of Bihar again, and with a landslide victory.
Once it was clear he was back with a huge majority, Nitish Kumar thanked Bihar and said this was a victory of the people and not that of his alliance. He promised to work hard for Bihar and its people. He said development had won in Bihar.
(Watch)Nitish said he had no magic wand, but he would try and live up to the aspirations of the people.
In his sober, low-key address, the Chief Minister could not help make a dig at Lalu Yadav and his years of rule when he said "no sooner would we fight elections that we'd land in hospital." He thanked the election commission, but credited the people for free, fair and violence-free elections.
A vote for development, said an exultant BJP. A vote for development, say NDTV.com surfers. Even the Congress says "all credit to Nitish Kumar", with Home Minister P Chidambaram saying, "If development argument has prevailed in Bihar, we should all be happy."
(Read: All credit to Nitish for his success: Congress)Together, the partners have 207 seats, 64 more than the 143 they had in 2005. The BJP has gained 36 seats more than it had, the JD(U) is ahead in 28.
The Lalu-Yadav-led RJD-LJP combine has been routed, getting only 24 seats, down 40 from 64 last time. The ignominy has been doubled by Lalu's wife and former chief minister Rabri Devi losing onn both seats she contested.
(Read: Rabri loses twice) Only Lalu's partner Ram Vilas Paswan may have some reason to smile, winning more seats than he had in 2005.
The BJP is celebrating, in the words of senior party leader, Arun Jaitley, "the victory of merit over dynastic politics."
(Read: Bihar has changed, says Jaitley) |
(Watch). Leader after BJP leader also hailed the Bihar government's "good governance" and exulted in the failure of the Congress.
The Rahul Gandhi magic notwithstanding, the Congress is almost irrelevant at only 4 seats, down from only 9 last time. Congress president Sonia Gandhi has congratulated Nitish Kumar and defended her party's decision not to ally with any party and said the Congress would have to start from scratch in the state.
Others, including the BSP and Independents, have 6 seats in the 243-member assembly.
The Bihar elections were held in six phases and were closely watched both because there were new emerging voting trends in the state and because it was a clash of two major leaders, both lobbying hard to maintain their position. The Chief Election Commissioner SY Quraishi described it as the "most peaceful election ever."
(Watch: Most peaceful election ever: Quraishi) Among the most interesting voting trends was the fact that more women turned out to vote than men did - Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's campaign overtly wooed women voters and he made proud mention of this in his victory speech.
This is part of Nitish Kumar's positioning himself as the leader of the New Age in Bihar - better law and order, improved administration and a new influx of industry. A positioning that seems to have won the day.
For as results poured in, caste or community factors seemed to come second to development. Development was the word that surged out in a cloud when we asked NDTV.com surfers to describe the
Bihar elections in One Word.
An analysis of the leads and results also threw up the word significantly. In 49 Muslim-dominated seats across the state, the JD(U)- BJP have swept 39, while RJD has only 5. The leading combine has also swept Naxal-dominated areas.
And Nitish Kumar is being looked upon as a possible Prime Minister in the future.
(Watch: Is Nitish PM-in-waiting?)