Chirag Paswan hurt Nitish but could not become King Maker?

Patna, November 10, 2020, Tuesday

The NDA is moving towards a majority in the Bihar election results but Chirag Paswan, son of the late Ram Vilas Paswan, has not had the expected success. The oddity in the Bihar elections was that Paswan's Lok Janshakti Party is with the NDA at the Center but in the Bihar Assembly elections, the NDA's constituent party Janata Dal-U fielded candidates across the state. Out of resentment against Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Chirag Paswan tried his best to seek political revenge but did not succeed.

Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal seems to be losing some seats as per the trend but it has not increased the number of Chirag Paswan's Lok Janshakti party seats. The BJP has had the biggest success in the Bihar elections. The BJP is leading in more than 50 seats, more than Tejaswi Yadav's RJD. While ally Nitish Kumar also has more seats than expected in the exit polls. Chirag Paswan was expected to emerge as the king maker in the Bihar elections but he did not. People angry with Nitish Kumar voted for Paswan's LGP but not enough to convert him to victory. The split in votes could benefit the BJP while hurting the grand coalition. According to the information received, BJP is leading in 9 seats and JDU in 6 seats so far.

The BJP has so far polled 13.5 per cent while the JDU has polled 12.5 per cent. Tejaswi Yadav's RJD party is leading in 9 seats while it has polled 7.5 per cent votes so far. Chirag Paswan's LJP accounted for 4.5 per cent of the vote. So Chirag Paswan could have done better if he had not fielded candidates against Nitish Kumar's JDU party, or it could have been the single largest party in Bihar.