'Nitish Kumar very happy with Bihar bypoll result': Tejashwi Yadav taunts NDA over rift

Taking a dig at the rift between JDU and BJP, Tejashwi Yadav contended that Nitish Kumar was very happy at the saffron party's loss in the Bihar bypoll. RJD's Amar Paswan won Bochaha- a seat earlier held by NDA partner VIP by beating his nearest opponent Baby Kumari of BJP by over 36,000 votes. Speaking to the media on Sunday, the RJD leader opined that the Bochacha result was a defeat of the Bihar government's arrogance. According to him, people taught a lesson to the JDU-BJP alliance over their alleged failure on issues such as unemployment and healthcare. 

Tejashwi Yadav remarked, "I thank the people of Bochaha for this tremendous victory. This is a victory of the people and the issues. (They were) education, earning and medicine. Unemployment is at its peak. The people are fed up with the current government whether it is BJP or JDU. Everyone is worried about their own interests. I know that Nitish Ji is very happy with this result. This is also a defeat of arrogance." 

"People belonging to all castes and communities whether it is men, women, the elderly, or the youth voted for RJD candidate Amar Paswan and we had a tremendous win. I don't think anyone registered such a big victory in Bochaha until now. This is the love of the people and the people have taught a lesson to the government," the Leader of Opposition in Bihar Assembly added. 

BJP's rift with ally ahead of Bihar bypoll

The Bochaha seat fell vacant after the demise of Mukesh Paswan, who had won the 2020 Bihar Assembly election on a VIP ticket. While Bochaha was allocated to VIP back then as a part of the seat-sharing agreement, BJP has announced Baby Kumari as its candidate for this seat for the by-election. Serving as the Minister for Animal Husbandry and Fisheries in the Nitish Kumar-led Bihar Cabinet, VIP chief Mukesh Sahani was at loggerheads with BJP for not giving two Cabinet berths to VIP besides not giving him a full 6-year tenure in the Legislative council after his defeat in Bihar Assembly polls. 

Sahani also drew ire for putting up 57 candidates against the JP Nadda-led party in the recently concluded Uttar Pradesh Assembly election. On this occasion too, VIP refused to back down and gave the poll ticket to Geeta Devi from Bochaha. But Sahani suffered a big blow as all three MLAs of his party joined BJP, thus making it the single-largest party in Bihar with 77 seats in the Assembly. Thereafter, he was sacked as a Minister on BJP's demand.