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Narendra Modi‘S ruling coalition The Indian Prime Minister and his Hindu nationalist party won a decisive victory in a key state election, consolidating the government after a narrow mandate in last year’s national election.
National Democratic Alliance Won 202 out of 243 seats in the Bihar Assembly, which is far more than the 122 seats required for majority.
Modi ji’s Bharatiya Janata Party won 89 seats, while its main ally, state Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal United, won 85 seats. Three smaller allies together won 29 seats.
Bihar is one of the poorest states in India, but its population of approximately 130 million, making it the third most populous state, gives it considerable influence on national politics.
The eastern state sends one of the largest factions of MPs to the lower house of the Parliament of India and is widely seen as a precursor to what would come to be known as the Indian Parliament. Hindi Heart place. State control often shapes national political narratives and carries important symbolic weight.
The state has been led by Mr Kumar, 74, a key aide of Mr Modi for nearly two decades.
opposition Congress The party contested the elections as part of an alliance with regional giant Rashtriya Janata Dal, but won only six seats, the party’s worst performance in the state since 2010. RJD secured 25 seats and smaller allies added four seats to the tally.
In his victory speech, Mr Modi thanked the voters of Bihar and accused the Congress of pursuing “appeasement politics” to woo the Muslim-Yadav base, a long-term alliance of minority religious and caste groups considered the RJD’s main support base.
He said, “We are public servants. We keep making people happy with our hard work and we have stolen the hearts of the people.”
“And that’s why the whole of Bihar has said, ‘Once again, NDA.’
Taking a dig at the RJD, which ruled Bihar from 1990 to 2005, he said, “When I spoke about Jungle Raj and the Katta government in Bihar elections, the RJD did not raise any objection. But it hurt the Congress people. Today, I want to reiterate that the Katta government will never come back to Bihar. The people of Bihar have voted for a developed Bihar.”
The phrase “Jungle Raj” is commonly used in Indian political discourse to attack rival parties by suggesting anarchy or misrule. “Katta Sarkar” is a colloquial phrase referring to a locally manufactured crude weapon, with the same meaning as “Jungle Raj”.
“Developed India” is a campaign slogan used by Mr Modi and his party to refer to their goal of making India a developed nation by 2047.
Victory in Bihar marks a dramatic turnaround for Mr Modi His party lost its absolute parliamentary majority in last year’s national election. He is now dependent on his coalition partners, including Mr Kumar, to remain in office.
However, in the year and a half since the parliamentary elections, Mr Modi’s party has regained its footing by winning several key state contests, signaling a restoration of its political standing.
Rahul GandhiThe head of the opposition alliance described the Bihar result as “surprising” and alleged that the election “was not fair from the very beginning”.
Referring to the opposition alliance, he said, “I express my heartfelt gratitude to the lakhs of voters of Bihar who reposed their trust in the Grand Alliance.”
“This result in Bihar is truly surprising. We could not win an election that was not fair from the beginning. This fight is to protect the Constitution and democracy. The Congress Party and the Indian alliance will review this result deeply and make their efforts to save democracy even more effective.”
Mr Gandhi’s campaign focused on “vote chori”, meaning vote theft, as he accused the Election Commission of facilitating manipulation of voter lists to benefit Mr Modi’s party.
A senior Congress functionary in the state said, “We feared that making ‘vote theft’ the mainstay of the party’s campaign was a risky move as there were enough indications that we were performing poorly, even though no one had expected such a bad result. Now, the BJP will completely discredit the ‘vote theft’ campaign. impression,
Before the elections, opposition parties had made allegations Election Commission is excluding real voters. Both the Commission and the BJP have denied the allegation, especially from its revised rolls of Muslims.
The revision is part of a broader update of voter lists underway in a dozen states and union territories.
About 10 per cent of Bihar’s 74 million voters were removed during the revision, which the poll body said was necessary due to large-scale migration of laborers and non-reporting of deaths.
Political analysts say that women voters played a big role in the results of Bihar. In September, the Prime Minister authorized the transfer of approximately £750m to millions of women under a state employment and welfare programme.
In contrast to the male-dominated electorate, Indian women are voting in increasingly large numbers.
Political strategist Amitabh Tiwari, who toured across Bihar during the elections, said it was “only women” who could give the ruling coalition a stronger mandate than in the last election.
A survey conducted by Mr Tiwari’s VoteVibe agency found that the NDA had secured 48.5 per cent of women votes, more than 10 percentage points ahead of the main opposition faction.
About 71.6 percent eligible women voters turned out to vote, the highest ever female participation in Bihar.
The campaign began against the backdrop of concerns about unemployment, apprehensions over law and order and allegations of irregularities in the revision of voter lists.
Almost all parties held massive rallies across the state, with Mr Modi and opposition leaders making direct appeals to voters through welfare pledges and personal outreach.
The results of Bihar are expected to have an impact on the assembly elections to be held in Assam, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu next year. BJP currently rules only Assam.