New Delhi: The massive mandate for the NDA in Bihar Assembly elections not just reflects Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s enduring charisma but also mirrors a course correction by a large number electors who did not back the BJP-led alliance in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, political analysts said on Friday.
As repeatedly seen in Assembly elections held after the Lok Sabha elections last year, people have felt a sense of guilt and as a result voted repeatedly in favour of the BJP in Haryana, Maharashtra, Delhi and now Bihar, a psephologist said.
An Opinion poll conducted in Haryana and Maharashtra soon after BJP’s big victory in the Western state last November, showed that more than 50 per cent of the respondents in both states agreed that PM Modi’s popularity had increased after the Lok Sabha elections.
In Bihar, the Lok Sabha mandate in 2024 had reduced the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) tally by 10 seats as compared to 2019 — down from 39 to 29 out of the total 40 parliamentary seats.
However, the NDA has managed to bounce back in the current Bihar Assembly elections, just about a year-and-a-half after the parliamentary poll setback, by nearing the tally of 200 seats in the 243-member State Legislature.
Experts said that a course correction by voters after the Lok Sabha is apparent as the massive mandate in the Assembly polls reflects the people’s contentment, especially that of women voters, with the delivery of welfare schemes by PM Modi-led Central government and Nitish Kumar-led Bihar government.
The BJP and the JD-U have both improved their vote share in the current Bihar Assembly elections as compared to 2020 Assembly polls.
The trends on the counting day on Friday showed that the BJP’s vote share rose to 20.67 per cent from 19.5 per cent in the 2020 Assembly elections and JD-U’s moved up to 19.67 per cent from 15.4 per cent in 2020.
In collective terms, the NDA’s vote share in 2020 Bihar Assembly elections was 35.7 per cent, which stood at 48.2 per cent in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and an IANS-Matrize Exit Poll conducted on November 11 — the second and final phase of voting in the Bihar Assembly elections — showed that an overwhelming 65 per cent of women voters backed the NDA.
The findings of the Exit Poll, with a sample size of 66,087 and a margin of error of plus-minus three per cent, suggested that PM Modi-led Central government’s and Nitish Kumar government’s women-centric welfare schemes had impressed women who backed the ruling alliance wholeheartedly in the current elections.
The Mahagathbandhan, led by the Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Congress, managed to secure just 27 per cent of women’s votes, the Exit Poll said.
(IANS)
