PATNA: Bihar CM Nitish Kumar on Saturday said he was surprised over the results of some places (constituencies) in the just concluded Bihar legislative council polls.
Responding to a media query, Nitish also said the council elections were not based on the votes of ‘Aam Janata’ (common public). Rather, it was based on the votes of limited people, he said.
Elected representatives of the Panchayati Raj institutions (PRI) and urban local bodies (ULBs), Members of Parliament (MP), MLAs and MLCs form the electoral college for 24 local authority seats of the Bihar council. Nitish was in fact referring to this electoral college when he said the council polls were based on the votes of limited people.
“Every people knows what kind of labour the council poll candidates do. We are surprised over the results of some places where candidates had claimed that they would surely win, but the results came otherwise. We don’t know what happened, but this election has a different format,” Nitish said while responding to a media query over the council polls results which were declared on Thursday.
Altogether 24 local authority seats of the council went to the polling on April 4 and the results of all 24 seats came out on Thursday.
Nitish’s party JD(U) lost six of the 11 seats it contested in the council polls in alliance with the BJP and Union minister Pashupati Kumar Paras-led RLJP. Besides retaining its three sitting seats namely Muzaffarpur, Nalanda and Bhagalpur, the JD(U) registered its victory from Bhojpur and Sitamarhi seats. However, the ruling JD(U) lost elections in Patna, Nawada, Gaya, Munger, West Champaran and Madhubani. The JD(U) had won Nawada and Gaya seats in all three previous elections.
JD(U)’s ally BJP bagged seven out of 12 seats it contested, while the RLJP one seat Vaishali which it was allotted to contest as part of the seat-sharing among the NDA three allies JD(U), BJP and the RLJP.
Referring to the last council polls held in July 2015, Nitish said then the BJP had bagged ‘several’ seats even though the JD(U) and the RJD had contested in alliance. “This election has a different format. It is difficult to say who will win how many seats in these polls,” the CM said.
In the last elections for 24 council seats, the BJP had contested alone and had won 11 seats, the JD(U) (five), RJD (four), LJP (one), Congress (one) and Independents-- two seats.
To a question, Nitish also said that he would go to Bochaha on April 10 to campaign in favour of the NDA candidate Baby Kumari in the assembly by-polls. “I feel the NDA will win the Bochaha by-poll,” Nitish said.
The Bihar CM was talking to media persons after offering floral tributes before the statue of Samrat Ashoka on his birth anniversary at the Samrat Ashoka Convention Kendra near Gandhi maidan here.
