Bihar election results: Nitish Kumar's 'last election' slip an ill-omen?

Surmounting anti-incumbency of 15 years, Nitish Kumar- led NDA was back in power in Bihar on Wednesday with a majority.

However, this time, instead of Nitish Kumar, its ally Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) played the 'big brother' in their alliance. This is the first time since JD(U) and BJP got together where the latter had to drag Nitish's party to the finish line with more votes in its kitty.

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Nitish Kumar's party that bagged 71 votes in 2015 assembly elections, got 43 votes this time. Two reasons could be pointed out for JD(U)'s poor performance in the elections:

Was Nitish's 'last election' slip an ill-omen?

On the last day of campaigning, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar stunned everybody when he declared that the 2020 Assembly polls would be his last election.

Although Nitish was himself not contesting from any of the Assembly constituencies, as he is already a member of the Legislative Council (MLC) since 2006, his term renewed every six years.

Facing a tough and bitter fight from his rival Tejashwi Yadav, Nitish precisely meant with his ‘electoral stunt’ of “last election” that he was contesting the 2020 Assembly poll as the “chief ministerial candidate for the last time.”

This could have been one of the reasons why Kumar lost a bunch of votes compared to the last elections.

Did Chirag Paswan's gamble bring JD(U)'s numbers down?

Paswan made a surprising announcement at the beginning of the election when he declared that he would be contesting independently. Was that a gamble to destroy Nitish Kumar's party?

Also Read | Bihar Election: Modi saves the day for Nitish Kumar; RJD emerges as single largest party

The LJP, though, itself looked to have paid a big price in the process as it could win just one seat while drawing around 5.68 per cent of votes, his strategic move brought down the JDU(U) to third position in the state.

Paswan's party has been instrumental in the JD(U)'s loss in at least 27 seats. But it has always spoken in favour of PM Narendra Modi.

Paswan described the Bihar polls results as a "victory" of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying the people have shown their trust in him.