oppn parties Bihar Cliffhanger Goes The NDA Way

News Snippets

  • SP drops two candidates owing allegiance to Azam Khan from Rampur and Moradabad
  • In Assam, a controversy erupted after a picture of UPPL leader Benjamin Basumatary, lying on a stack of Rs 500 notes circulated on social media. UPPL is an ally of the BJP
  • AAP's Jalandhar-West MP Sushil Kumar Rinku joins the BJP. He was the only AAP Lok Sabha MP
  • Supreme Court dismisses Centre's plea to review its 2023 verdict in the PMLA case
  • Close save for passengers as they remain unhurt after the wings of two planes graze at Kolkata airport. Pilots derostered and inquiry ordered by DGCA
  • Bengal BJP leader Dilip Ghosh gets notice from the EC as well as the BJP for making ugly remarks about Mamata Banerjee's parentage
  • Sadanand Vasanth Date, who faught terrorists in the 26/11 attack and was awarded the Preisent's Police medal, has been appointed the head of the NIA
  • Centre will borrow Rs 7.5L cr in the first six months of FY25, nearly 50% of the target for the full year
  • 25 stocks, including SBI, will see same day trade settlements from today in the world's fastest settlement mode in both BSE and NSE
  • Stocks recover smartly on Wednesday: Sensex rises 526 points to 72996 and Nifty 118 points to 22123
  • Tennis: Rohan Bopanna-Matthew Ebden reached the semifinals of the Miami Open
  • IPL: records tumble as SRH beat MI in a high-scoring match. SRH score 277/3 with 18 sixes and Mumbai score 246 with 20 sixes to fall short by 31 runs. Atotal of 38 sixes, highest in an IPL match were hit and both teams combined to score 523 runs, the highest aggregate in an IPL match
  • Amul will launch fresh milk in the US
  • IPL: RCB beat Punjab by 4 wickets as Kohli and Karthik shine with the bat
  • India strongly objected to German foreign office remarks over the arrest of delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, called it "biased assumptions"
Delhi Lt Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena says government cannot be run from jail, hints at President's Rule in the capital ////// In a dangerous incident, the wings of two planes grazed while taxiing on the runway at Kolkata airport, all passengers were safe but DGCA ordered an inquiry and the pilots were derostered
oppn parties
Bihar Cliffhanger Goes The NDA Way

By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2020-11-11 11:17:58

About the Author

Sunil Garodia Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.

At the end of a most dramatic day of counting in which fortunes swung one way or the other and many seats hung on the edge with the thinnest of margins, the NDA managed to pip the Mahagathbandhan (MGB) and secured a majority. The final figures showed an almost unchanged assembly - NDA 125, MGB 110 and others 9. But within these numbers, there was much that changed.

For one, in the NDA, the BJP emerged as the senior party by winning 74 seats, a gain of 21 from 2015. It got a vote share of 19.4%. The JD(U), with just  43 seats, suffered a loss of 28 seats. It got a vote share of just 15.4%. Although it is clear that it was a vote against the JD(U) and Nitish Kumar, after the Maharashtra fiasco with the Shiv Sena, the BJP cannot afford to remove Kumar as chief minister. But it will have much more bargaining power now. The other parties who performed well in the NDA were Jiten Ram Majhi's HAM and the VIP who together won 8 seats. They will now have to be accommodated in the cabinet.

In the MGB, although the RJD suffered a loss of 5 seats from 2015, its vote share increased to 23.1, the best among all parties contesting the elections. The Congress lost 8 seats and much of its bargaining power in the alliance. The Left parties were the surprise packet of these elections. They won 16 seats (CPIM(ML) 12, CPM 2 and CPI 2), Although the Left traditionally had a strong base in parts of south Bihar, the influence was waning in recent times. This performance will surprise many and boost the confidence of these parties.

The other surprise packet was Asaduddin Owaisi's AIMIM. It won 5 seats in the Seemanchal area. But more than that, it dented the prospects of the MGB in many places. The biggest loser was Chirag Paswan. His party won just one seat. But a deeper analysis showed that he might have played spoilsport for JD(U) in at least 20 seats where his party came either second or third. It also shows that had the LJP not left the NDA in Bihar, the alliance might have probably won another 10 to 15 seats. 

Lead picture courtesy: news18.com