Sunday, May 17, 2009

NDA posts emphatic win in Bihar, 4th Front falls by wayside

Patna (PTI): Riding the crest of a wave that remained imperceptible through electioneering, the Nitish Kumar-powered NDA posted an emphatic victory in the Lok Sabha elections in Bihar winning 32 of the State's 40 seats as the Fourth Front comprising the RJD and the LJP came apart at the seams.

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar led the State's ruling alliance to an unprecedented victory performing even better than what the exit polls predicted despite the NDA suffering a major blow elsewhere in the country.

While Mr. Kumar's JD(U) won 20 of 25 seats it contested, the BJP pocketed 12 of the 15 it fought.

The Fourth Front, which comprised the RJD and the LJP in Bihar as Mulayam Singh Yadav's Samajwadi Party did not field any candidate, could manage four seats all of which went to RJD.

Ramvilas Paswan's LJP was obliterated in the electoral battlefield losing all 12 seats it contested, including Mr. Paswan's pocket borough Hajipur, which sent him seven times to the Lok Sabha. The party had four MPs in the 14th Lok Sabha.

Even RJD president and Railway minister Lalu Prasad, showered with accolades for the turnaround in the largest public sector undertaking, lost from Pataliputra where he was pipped at the post by his friend-turned-foe Ranjan Prasad Yadav of JD(U).

Mr. Prasad, however, retained Saran, winning it for the fourth time.

Source: The Hindu

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