Lalu's elder son Tej Pratap Yadav blames party leaders for defeat in by-polls
NEW DELHI: Soon after results of assembly by-polls went in favour of ruling JD-U, leader of opposition in the state assembly Tejashwi Yadav said that defeat on the seats might have come out but the RJD had got more votes than ever before.
Taking to twitter, Tejashwi Yadav said:" We fought on two seats with full strength against the alliance of five ruling allies. The RJD has got more votes than ever before. Hearty thanks to the voters".
He continued adding in the tweet that the RJD made the people living in villages know about the reality of claimed work of development.
"The people of Bihar want change and change will happen."
But Lalu's elder son Tej Pratap Yadav openly blamed the state president of RJD Jagdanand Singh and two others for the defeat of the party in assembly by-polls.
One of the senior RJD leaders, preferring anonymity, said: "We were convinced of the victory on both the seats having seen the massive crowds at every election rally, addressed by both Tejashwi Yadav and RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav in the by-polls. But it has become again clear that the crowd at the election rally, especially during the assembly elections, did not convert into votes. We got misled by the crowd".
He admitted that the difference cropped up with the Congress party over the claim of Kusheshwarasthan assembly seat also damaged the RJD. Arun Kumar Pandey-one of the acclaimed political analysts of Bihar attributed the defeat of RJD in assembly by-polls to the overconfidence of its leaders.
"Now, those days are almost gone in Bihar when only caste card used to help the party like RJD in elections to win the seats. The RJD's stand taken with the Congress party also gave an otherwise message about RJD among the voters of some sections, especially in Kusheshwarasthan seat, that ultimately helped the JD-U candidate to win the election by a margin of nearly 12000 votes", he said.
Some party insiders of RJD also said that Lalu's recent statement of doing “immersion" of the Nitish Kumar government also backfired with the statement of Nitish Kumar that Lalu Prasad can do nothing else except get him (Nitish Kumar) killed. In the Tarapur assembly seat, the RJD filed the candidate from the OBC category to challenge the JD-U candidate. As an official count, 78966 votes were polled to the JD-U candidate against 75145 votes polled to RJD candidates.
"Political arrogance of RJD leaders, who play the politics on caste equations, has been defeated by the people of Kusheshwarasthan and Tarapur in by-elections", Jivesh Mishra - the minister of labour resource department said.
After RJD's defeat in by-elections, the Congress Party also lost its ground in both the assembly constituencies after it had involved new entrants like Kanhaiya Kumar and others in election rallies.
"The lack of leadership in Bihar Pradesh Congress Party and its disassociation from RJD in by-elections have badly reduced the party on the ground. The most notable point that emerged out from this by-elections is that all loudmouth leaders like Kanhaiya Kumar and Lalu Prasad Yadav have been rejected by the voters. The voters want development; not only political denouncements,” remarked political observers of Patna.