Patna: In a jolt to NDA in Bihar, JD-U and
BJP on Thursday won six assembly seats while opposition RJD, LJP and
Congress bagged ten seats in the by-elections in 18
constituencies.
The two other seats went to BSP and an independent.
JD-U, which heads the ruling coalition in the state,
retained Munger, Triveniganj, Dhuraiya and Bagha, while its
ally BJP pocketed Begusarai and Chainpur.
RJD emerged victorious in Kalyanpur, Bochaha, Fulwari,
Ramgarh and Aurai and ally LJP won from Bodh Gaya, Warisnagar
and Araria. Congress wrested Simri Bakhtiarpur and Chenari
seats from JD(U), which yielded Nautan seat to BSP.
An independent was declared elected from Ghosi seat.
Expressing happiness over the poll outcome, RJD chief Lalu
Prasad said "We are not finished. We finish others. The result
is a warning bell for (Chief Minister) Nitish Kumar".
In the last assembly elections, JD(U) had held Bagha,
Nautan, Triveniganj, Simri Bakhtiarpur, Ghosi, Munger,
Kalyanpur, Dhuraiya, Aurai, and Chenari.
In this bypoll the party lost Nautan to BSP, Kalyanpur
and Aurai to RJD, Simri Bakhtiarpur and Chenari to Congress
and Ghosi to independent.
Thus the ruling party retained only four seats and
yielded six to others.
Similarly, the BJP which had emerged victorious in
Begusarai, Araria and Bodh Gaya, could scrape through from
Begusarai while wresting Chainpur.
The Congress fared better, snatching Simri Bakhtiarpur
and Chenari from the ruling JD(U).
The RJD retained Bochaha, Fulwari, Ramgarh and
wrested Aurai and Kalyanpur from JD(U).
LJP too pulled off a good performance retaining
Warisnagar, while unseating the BJP from Bodh Gaya and Araria.
JD(U) MP Jagdish Sharma's wife Shanti Priya Sharma
contested the election from Ghosi as independent and won.
BSP too made its presence felt taking away the Nautan
seat from the JD(U).
The by-elections were held in two phases. In the first
phase on September 10, elections were held in seven
constituencies, while the remainder were held on September 15.
The elections were necessitated to fill up seats
mostly vacated by sitting legislators who contested the Lok
Sabha polls.
Bureau Report
First Published: Thursday, September 17, 2009, 21:50