PATNA: In a major setback to the ruling NDA in Bihar, RJD candidate Amar Kumar Paswan defeated BJP nominee Baby Kumari by a huge margin of 36,653 votes in the Bochaha assembly bypoll. Result was announced on Saturday.
While Paswan secured 82,562 votes (48.52% of the votes polled), Baby got 45,909 votes (26.98%). Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP) candidate Geeta Kumari secured third position with 29,279 votes (17.21%). Geeta is the daughter of former minister Ramai Ram, who had won the seat for record nine times till 2010. VIP president Mukesh Sahani had high hopes from Geeta, given her father’s background.
Interestingly, Congress candidate Tarun Chaudhary could not secure even one percent of the votes polled and got only 1,336 votes (00.79%), which was less than half of the 2,967 NOTA votes. Rinku Devi of the AIMIM, which had won five seats in the 2020 assembly polls in Bihar, could get only 541 votes (00.32%).
The bypoll held on April 12 was necessitated after the death of VIP MLA Musafir Paswan. Amar is the son of late Musafir. The Mukesh Sahani-led VIP was then part of the NDA in Bihar. As the differences between the BJP and the VIP grew after Sahani spoke against the saffron party leaders and fielded candidates in the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls, the BJP first got all the 3 VIP MLAs merged with itself and then ensured the dismissal of Sahani from the Nitish Kumar ministry.
