In its first response to the extraordinary drubbing in the Bihar Assembly polls, Lalu Prasad Yadav's Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), the key constituent of the opposition Mahagathbandhan, on Saturday said "ups and downs are inevitable" in public service.
Calling itself a "party of the poor," the RJD, which faced the election under the leadership of Tejashwi Yadav, said it had "no sorrow" in the defeat.
"Public service is an unceasing process, an endless journey! Ups and downs are inevitable in it. No sorrow in defeat, no arrogance in victory! The Rashtriya Janata Dal is the party of the poor, it will continue to raise their voice among the poor!," the party said in a post on X.
In the second-worst performance in its history, the RJD was reduced to just 25 seats when the results of the Bihar Assembly polls were announced on Friday, making way for a historic win by the ruling NDA coalition led by JD(U)'s Nitish Kumar.
The only big win for RJD was Tejashwi Yadav holding onto the Raghopur seat, defeating BJP's Satish Kumar by a margin of 14,532 votes. He has held the seat for the last 10 years, defeating the BJP's Kumar in both the 2015 and 2020 assembly elections.
However, RJD emerged as the single largest party, in terms of vote share, with 22.76 per cent of votes, surpassing BJP's 20.90 per cent and the JD(U)'s 18.92 per cent.
The allies of the Mahagathbandhan, including Congress and Left parties, have pointed to discrepancies in polling data and the controversial Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls by the Election Commission to explain the alliance's embarrassing defeat in the polls.
Commenting on the poll results, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said, "This result in Bihar is truly surprising. We could not achieve victory in an election that was not fair from the very beginning."
"This fight is for the protection of the Constitution and democracy. The Congress Party and the INDIA alliance will deeply review this result and make their efforts to save democracy even more effective," he added.
The NDA registered a spectacular victory, sweeping 202 of the 243 seats, with the BJP emerging as the largest party with 89 seats, followed by the JDU with 85.
Union Minister Chirag Paswan's Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas), which managed to win just one seat in the 2020 Assembly elections, emerged with 19 seats, making a significant impact.
