Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Chirag Paswan on the right and Shankar Singh in the middle.
The NDA has once again suffered a setback in the first assembly by-election held after the Lok Sabha elections. In the by-elections held on 13 seats, the Bharatiya Janata Party won 11, while the NDA won only two seats. Both these seats belong to BJP. The biggest upset in the by-election was seen in the Rupauli assembly seat in Purnia district of Bihar. Here both NDA and Bharat Gathbandhan have remained empty handed. Independent candidate Shankar Singh has won this seat.
In the by-election held on the Rupauli seat, the JDU made Kaladhar Mandal its candidate on behalf of the NDA. At the same time, Bima Bharti was contesting from RJD. The seat fell vacant after the resignation of the MLA Bima Bharti before the Lok Sabha elections. Bima Bharti left the JDU and joined the RJD and contested the Lok Sabha elections from Purnia. Independent candidate Pappu Yadav was successful in winning the Lok Sabha elections. Similarly, independent candidate Shankar Singh has won in the assembly by-election.
Shankar Singh turned rebel before the by-election
Shankar Singh had resigned from the LJP before the assembly by-elections. It was believed that Shankar Singh was preparing to contest the by-election, but he resigned from the LJP after the NDA did not field him. After rebelling against the LJP, Shankar Singh contested as an independent candidate. On the other hand, JDU had put all its strength in the election campaign for Kaladhar. Chief Minister Nitish Kumar was also seen in the field along with his entire cabinet.
People are equating the by-elections with assembly elections.
In such a situation, questions are being raised that will the JDU face defeat in the by-elections due to Chirag Paswan? There is no doubt that Shankar Singh is an LJP rebel, but even after this, Chirag’s LJP has not been very active in the by-elections. However, Chirag held a joint roadshow in support of the JDU candidate. Some people are comparing the by-election to the 2020 Bihar assembly elections. Then LJP announced to contest elections against JDU in Bihar while remaining in NDA. Out of 243 assembly seats in Bihar, LJP fielded candidates in 137 seats. The LJP supported the seats where the BJP had contested, but Chirag’s party was opposed to the seats contested by the JDU.
JDU suffered losses due to opposition in assembly elections
The effect of the LJP’s opposition then was that 41 seats of the Nitish Kumar-led Janata Dal United went to the Grand Alliance. Regarding the election, it was said that if Chirag Paswan had not taken enmity against Nitish Kumar, the JDU would not have had to bear this loss. The situation was such that JDU reached the third position with 43 seats. Now a similar situation has been seen in Rupali. The seat which was once held by JDU has now gone to independents.
Who got how many votes in the by-election?
- Shankar Singh (Independent)- 68070
- Kaladhar Mandal (JDU)-59824
- Bima Bharti (RJD)- 30619
It is being said about Rupauli’s results that LJP gave Nitish Kumar a shock in the first assembly elections, now rebel Shankar Singh has defeated RJD. This is nothing short of a major setback for JDU and Nitish Kumar. Shankar Singh is counted among the powerful leaders in Purnia. Shankar Singh contested and won the assembly elections in 2005 on an LJP ticket. However, due to the dissolution of the assembly, he could not remain an MLA for long. After this, he contested on an LJP ticket in 2010, 2015 and 2020, but did not win. Now, he had the advantage of rebelling against the LJP in the by-election that Shankar Singh became MLA.
