Bihar elections: Tejashwi’s Raghopur nail-biter reflects RJD’s worst show in 15 years

As results started pouring out for the two-phase Bihar Assembly elections on Friday (November 14), the Opposition Mahagathbandhan (Grand Alliance) spearheaded by the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) was in for a shock of a lifetime.

The Raghopur seat in Vaishali district, known to be a family bastion for the party’s top brass, was witnessing a neck-and-neck fight between Tejashwi Yadav and Satish Kumar of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). It was the same opponent that Tejashwi had defeated in Raghopur in the 2015 and 2020 elections.

Though finally the former deputy chief minister of Bihar, who was also the Opposition alliance’s chief ministerial face in this election, managed to retain the seat, it reflected the decline of the RJD since it emerged the single largest party in 2015 and 2020.

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The close contest in Raghopur was symbolic of the struggle the ambitious Mahagathbandhan faced on D-Day. Overall, the National Democratic Alliance led by the BJP and Janata Dal (United) of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar was on its way to scripting a thumping victory.

Seat once held by Lalu Prasad, Rabri Devi

Tejashwi’s struggle in what he called his party’s safest seat, which was once held by his parents Lalu Prasad and Rabri Devi, both former chief ministers, and twice by himself, only added to the woes of the supporters of the party and alliance on what turned out to be a devastating day.

Also read: Bihar election results: BJP mocks Rahul's '95 defeats' as NDA sweeps

Party-wise, the RJD was nowhere near its performance in the 2015 and 2020 state polls, when it finished as the single-largest party with 80 and 75 seats, respectively. Till the latest reports came in, the NDA was leading in more than 200 seats in the 243-strong Assembly while the Grand Alliance was in only 34. The RJD itself was leading in only 27 seats (it contested in 143), and if the trends persist, it is likely to settle for its worst performance since the 2010 polls, when it got only 22.

RJD's silver lining: More vote share

However, amid the debacle, the RJD had something to take solace from. Six hours into the counting, the party accumulated more voter share than its NDA rivals – the BJP and JD(U). If the latest reports are to be believed, the RJD had a vote share touching 23 per cent, which is nearly two points more than the BJP and nearly four points more than the JD(U).

Also read: Bihar elections: Nitish Kumar set to become India's longest-serving CM?

The RJD’s allies, including the Congress and Left parties, also produced below-par performance, leading in less than nine seats together.