Bihar based political parties including the ruling Janata Dal (United) (JD-U) couldn’t win even a single seat in the recently concluded Bihar and Assam assembly elections. What is even worse, most of their candidates lost even their deposits in a grim reminder of their limited influence in politics outside Bihar.
The JD(U) managed 0.11% of the total votes polled in Assam with all the 34 party candidates losing their deposits as per election commission data. JD(U) leaders, aware of the poll outcome, said the majority of party candidates polled around 600- 800 votes with only a few getting over 1000 votes. In 2016 Assam assembly polls, the JD(U) contested four seats and earned 0.07% votes.
In Bengal, JD(U) fared even worse with 0.02% vote share with majority of the 16 party candidates losing their deposits, the JD(U) leader quoted above said.
The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) candidate got 0.07% votes on the single seat contested in Assam with support from the Congress-led alliance. The RJD didn’t field any candidates in West Bengal and extended support to chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress.
Similarly, the Lok Janshakti party (LJP) contested 10 seats in West Bengal and around dozen seats in Assam with a negligible return of 0.01% and 0.04% votes respectively.
The CPI-ML( liberation), which has re-emerged as a political force in Bihar after last year’s assembly elections, got 0.03% of all the votes cast in West Bengal and in Assam, it could manage only 0.14% votes.
Sanjay Verma, a senior JD(U) leader and in-charge of Assam polls, said the party did not perform as per expectations because of a straight contest between BJP and Congress –AIUDF alliance in Assam. Similarly, its 16 candidates in West Bengal did not gain much due to the straight fight between the BJP and the TMC in the state.
“But in both the states, the JD(U) has managed to strengthen its organisational base and would strive to gain political space in the coming days,” Verma said.
RJD’s Abdul Bari Siddiqui, a former minister, said his party could have done better in Assam had it got more seats in alliance with the Congress. “The party has made considerable inroads in Assam. In Bengal, we did not contest,” he said.
