PATNA: The BJP in Bihar on Sunday claimed that the JD(U) had suffered a debacle in the last assembly polls because Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had "lost his popularity" but candidates kept invoking his name besides that of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
State BJP president Sanjay Jaiswal made a statement to this effect at a press conference here that he had called to declare that Union Home Minister Amit Shah's two-day tour of the Seemanchal region in Bihar was a "historic success".
"Nitish Kumar has been rejected by the people of Bihar. What else went wrong in 2020 when we contested together? Our (BJP) candidates sought votes in the name of PM Modi and 74 of them got elected. JD(U) candidates committed the mistake of always conflating Modi's name with that of Nitish Kumar," Jaiswal said.
The JD(U) won 43 assembly seats in the 2020 polls. Jaiswal's claim was ridiculed by the chief minister's party which underscored that the BJP was "brought to its knees" in the 2015 assembly polls, which were held a year after the massive victory of the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
"Again in 2019, the NDA won 39 out of 40 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar. Which factor worked in favour of the BJP-led alliance? Obviously, it was the return of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to power (in the state)," said JD(U) national secretary Rajiv Ranjan Prasad.
The BJP should "seriously worry" about the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, he said.
"In Bihar, they (BJP) have lost Nitish Kumar in whose support the multi-party Mahagathbandhan has come out. So they can imagine what they would be up against," Prasad pointed out.
The JD(U) leader also said, "The events of Bihar have wider ramifications. Nitish Kumar's exit (from NDA) has led to a galvanisation of forces against the use of central probe agencies for political vendetta and horse-trading, which was witnessed in Maharashtra and attempted in Bihar. The BJP, which gloats over its majority in the Lok Sabha, faces serious trouble in 2024."
Notably, the JD(U) had been the BJP's senior ally in Bihar till they first broke up in 2013, after nearly two decades of partnership.