The BJP and its allies looks set to win 13 of those seats, with the ruling alliance trailing at 10.
“This was not an election where the common people vote. It was a council election. If the BJP wants to be so happy about it, let them be. They anyway like to live in this fantasy world,” said Mr Kumar.
Mr Kumar’s Janata Dal United was at pains to explain that these elections could in no way be seen as a setback for the Chief Minister. “We are still waiting for the final results. However, this is not a semi-final to the assembly elections… The voters are different,” said JDU spokesperson Ajay Alok.
An election is an election, said a jubilant BJP. “It’s a very positive sign and points to the fact that the NDA will get a majority in the coming state elections. Bihar is tired of Nitish Kumar’s leadership and desperately needs a change,” said Rajiv Pratap Rudy, union minister and lawmaker from Bihar.
Elections to the 24 seats in Bihar’s upper house were held on July 7; the voters were elected members of the assembly and local bodies like panchayats.
Nitish Kumar and Lalu Yadav, bitter rivals for many years, were brought together by the common need to stop the BJP from coming to power in the state.
The BJP has been furiously building muscle to play a major role in Bihar, where for years it was the junior partner in an alliance with the Janata Dal United. After they parted ways, the BJP and its allies had won 32 of Bihar’s 40 Lok Sabha seats in last year’s national elections.
Some months later Nitish and Lalu tested a new alliance in assembly by-elections to 10 seats and won six. But the partnership hasn’t been an easy one and almost came apart last month over projecting Nitish Kumar for chief minister. The Congress, also their partner in Bihar, has helped staple it together for now.
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