Rahul Gandhi and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav ride motorcycles with others during the ‘Voter Adhikar Yatra’ in Bihar.
Credit: X/ @INCIndia
Patna: The 2020 Assembly election in Bihar was a close contest between the NDA and the Mahagatbandhan, the earlier avtaar of the I.N.D.I.A. bloc, where the RJD won 75 seats while the BJP 74.
This happened when Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar jointly campaigned for the NDA and pulled out all the stops to ensure the ruling alliance romped home.
On the other hand, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav was the chief campaigner for the Mahagatbandhan and canvassed for his alliance nominees in the absence of RJD chief Lalu Prasad who was behind the bars in Ranchi (Jharkhand) following his conviction in the fodder scam.
Nail-biting finish
Such was the nail-biting finish of 2020 Assembly polls, that the RJD, despite emerging as the single largest party (with 75 MLAs), could not form the government as the NDA (JD-U and the BJP) narrowly crossed the magical figure of 122 in the 243-member House, while Tejashwi’s Mahagatbandhan was 12 short of the majority.
The Opposition had then cried foul highlighting how counting was stopped in many seats in the late evening and the Mahagatbandhan leaders, who were leading till last, lost by as low as 12 votes to 712 votes in a fierce fight.
Recently, Tejashwi, who was at the forefront with Rahul Gandhi, during the latter’s ‘Voter’s Adhikar Yatra’ has been appealing to his partymen to be cautious against the ‘vote-chori’ so that a repeat of 2020 does not happen in the 2025 Assembly Elections .
Facts & figures
There is substance in what the Opposition allege of ‘vote theft’. Take, for example, the case of Hisua Assembly constituency. The RJD spokesperson Shakti Singh Yadav lost to JD (U)’s Prem Mukhiya by as low as 12 votes.
The Congress nominee from Barbigha, Gajanan Shahi, too lost to JD (U) Sudarshan Kumar by a slender margin of 113 votes. Yet another RJD nominee Fateh Bahadur Singh lost to BJP’s Vijay Mandal in Dehri by a small margin of 464 votes.
Similar defeat was that of Mahagatbandhan ally - the CPI-ML’s nominee Jitendra Paswan - who lost to JD (U) Sunil Kumar by 462 votes at Bhore constituency. Sunil had quit IPS (where he was the Director General) to contest as Nitish Kumar’s nominee and is presently the Education Minister of Bihar.
In Union Minister Giriraj Singh’s Lok Sabha constituency Begusarai, the CPI’s Awadhesh Rai lost to Surendra Mehta of BJP in the Bachhwara Assembly seat by merely 484 votes. Bachhwara has traditionally been a Left stronghold for the last five decades.
In a similar pattern, in Parbatta, the RJD nominee Digambar Tiwary lost to Dr Sanjeev Kumar of the JD (U) by merely 951 votes.
In one particular case, the RJD too won with a slender margin when its nominee Sudhakar Singh emerged victorious from Ramgarh defeating Mayawati’s BSP nominee Ambika Singh by 189 votes. Notably, Sudhakar won the Lok Sabha election from Buxar in 2024 and is presently a RJD MP.
“Tejashwi’s focus, this time, is on all such seats where we lost with a slender margin,” averred a senior I.N.D.I.A. bloc leader.