How Nitish Kumar managed to beat 10 years of incumbency in Bihar

The landslide win has been claimed by the Grand Alliance of JD(U), RJD and Congress.

New Delhi/Patna: Nitish Kumar is back as the chief minister of Bihar! A third term in the state's top office establishes Nitish as a dominant force, not just in Bihar but at the national level as well. And the massive mandate that the Nitish-Lalu combine has won in Bihar has got pollsters running for cover as most of them had predicted a neck and neck fight between the two alliances, with one even predicting landslide for the NDA.

At the end, the landslide win has been claimed by the other side - the Grand Alliance of JD(U), RJD and Congress.

But how did Nitish manage to beat 10 years of incumbency? Probably the following points will help us understand the reasons:

- That Bihar's face changed and a lot of development happened in the state under Nitish Kumar's chief ministership is indisputable. There still is a lot of scope for improvement and further development, and people probably thought who better to trust than Nitish Kumar to carry on the development agenda.

- While final numbers are still awaited, trends show the JD(U) and RJD managed to combine their vote share for a stupendous performance in the Bihar Assembly Elections. The Congress is also seen improving its tally, dealing a blow to the NDA which had fancied its chances in the current polls after Nitish joined hands with Lalu who is blamed for bringing 'jungle raj' to the state in the pre-Nitish era.

- The BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi's bid to make people fear the return of 'jungle raj' failed and the RJD's performance shows the electorate had a different view. Probably they believe Nitish, though in collaboration with Lalu's RJD, will continue to provide a government where rule of law prevails.

- Another reason why the Grand Alliance managed to win big numbers is because of the fact that the BJP's allies didn't do well in the elections. None of the NDA members, barring BJP, seems to have made any impact to the final results of the Bihar elections, with all of them struggling to enter double figures.