Patna, Mar 12: With Janata Dal and Rashtriya Janata Dal daggers drawn in the just-concluded Lok Sabha elections, the harvest was reaped by Laloo's arch-rivals -- the Bhartiya Janata Party and Samta Party.The post-poll records released by the election office shows that the Janata Dal, which had fielded 36 candidates in the state, could manage only one seat.
The lone seat which went in favour was from Hajipur and the winning candidate was none other than Ram Bilas Paswan. Barring him, none of the candidates of the JD put up a brave front during polls. In fact, most of them turned out to be "vote-cuttwas" (a candidate who has no hope of winning but can affect the plight of other candidates in the fray).
The split in Janata Dal and the formation of Laloo's RJD helped the BJP-Samta combine to win at least a dozen seats in the state, says RJD leader Bhola Prasad Singh.
He added that "the Janata Dal had done this deliberately by fielding their candidates as their main enemy was not BJP-Samta, but Laloo."
Realising the split in the vote bank of RJD, Laloo Yadav, who during the polls spilled venom on JD leaders, is not averse to join the United Front in the post-poll scenario, knowing that the important constituent of the UF is one of Laloo's eye-sore party -- the Janata Dal.
Janata Dal leader Ram Vilas Paswan, reacting sharply to Laloo's intention, has said the Laloo's move to join the UF in the post-poll scenario will be opposed tooth and nail by JD leaders.
Laloo Yadav had been saying publicly during the polls that, "the Janata Dal has connived with the BJP-Samta to isolate me and make me the target".
The just-concluded general elections suggest that JD candidates were also pivotal in decreasing the vote percentage of the RJD. In at least nine constituencies, where RJD won by a margin of less than 50,000 votes, the credit goes to the Janata Dal for encroaching upon the vote bank of Laloo Yadav which mostly consists of yadavs and muslims.
The Samta Party won the Bikramganj seat by a margin of 7,851 votes thanks to the presence of JD which polled over 48,000 votes. In Banka too, Samta wrested the seat by a slender margin of 11,291 as the JD candidate could muster over 27,000 votes.
Similarly, the Samta Party heavy-weight Nitish Kumar retained his seat by 15,170 votes, while the JD candidate Brajnandan Yadav, an MLA, could garner over 34,000 votes in Barh constituency. Most of these votes were from the yadav caste, who preferred to vote for Brajnandan Yadav than the RJD candidate Vijay Krishna.
In Bettiah, the BJP won by a margin of 4,190 votes and the JD candidate here could poll in over 69,000 votes.
Though the margin of victory by BJP-Samta over their rival candidates is higher in Gopalganj, Khagaria, Bhagalpur and Godde but the margin is certainly less than what the JD nominees from constituencies received in form of votes.
For instance, the BJP candidate from Bhagalpur -- Prabhash Tewari won by a margin of over 91,000 votes, but the Communist Party of India (CPI) candidate Ambika Prasad polled in over 1.18 lakh votes and finished at third spot. The Gopalganj seat was won by Samta candidate Abdul Gaffor (ex-chief minister of Bihar) by a margin of 68,000 votes but here also Bihar Jan Congress (BJC of Jagganath Mishra) candidate Kali Prasad Pandey received 87,000 votes.
In Gaya, the RJD candidate -- the first `mushar' woman MP Bhagwati Devi, a stone crussher by profession, lost her seat by a margin of over 37,000 votes to the BJP candidate Krishna Chowdhary. The JD nominee here -- Rajesh Kumar polled more than 1.15 lakh votes. In Rosera, the younger brother of Ram Vilas Paswam, Ram Chander Paswan who was contesting as a JD candidate polled in 1.97 lakh votes to finish third. However, the seat here went in favour of RJD by a slender margin of 43,000 votes.
With all these figures show as an eye-opener for Laloo Yadav, the RJD supremo is in fact trying his bid to patch-up the once fractured relationship with the Janata Dal leaders in the post-poll scenario, keeping in mind the next general elections.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
