Poll strategist Prashant Kishor's electoral debut flopped last week after his Jan Suraaj Party was routed in the Bihar election. Kishor's party contested 238 of the state's 243 Assembly seats but failed to win any of them, although it did begin the day with leads in four constituencies.
However, by the time the dust settled, the Jan Suraaj was wiped out and, with it, possibly Kishor's political ambitions too. "Won zero seats, came second in one, finished fourth (or worse) in 122, and polled fewer than NOTA (the 'none of the available' option on EVMs) in 61."
The extent of that wipe-out was flagged by the BJP's Amit Malviya in a gleeful X post, which said 99 per cent of Kishor's candidates, or 236 of 238, had lost security deposits of Rs 10,000 each.
A security deposit - Rs 10,000 per candidate for an Assembly election and Rs 25,000 for a Lok Sabha poll - is required by law to ensure only genuinely interested individuals participate in any election. And those who fail to get at least a sixth of winning candidate's votes lose the deposit.
Malviya also pointed to the Jan Suraaj's poor vote-share.
It picked up only 3.34 per cent of the 16.77 lakh registered votes, Malviya said on X.
To be fair, the poor performance was not unexpected. Every exit poll NDTV consulted said Kishor's Jan Suraaj would be decimated - a poll of exit polls gave it one seat, at best - and they were right.
READ | Zero Seats, Big impact? Exit Polls On The Prashant Kishor Factor
But exit polls also suggested the Jan Suraaj could steal crucial vote share from the opposition.
One exit poll, Peoples Pulse, predicted the party might scoop up nearly 10 per cent of the votes - more than the Congress - which would be an excellent return for a party making its election debut.
READ | Prashant Kishor Party's Vote Share To Beat Congress': Exit Poll
In that, though, they were wrong. Kishor's party finished with less than four per cent of the votes.
Kishor, though, may take some solace from the thumping more established parties - the Congress and the Rashtriya Janata Dal - took at the hands of the Bharatiya Janata Party-Janata Dal United.
In its first public comment since the crushing defeat, the Jan Suraaj accused JDU boss Nitish Kumar's administration of having "diverted" Rs 14,000 crore from the World Bank to his campaign.
The party's National President, Uday Singh, said the funds were used for freebies. Starting in June and till the election was announced, Nitish Kumar 'splurged' Rs 40,000 crore to 'purchase' votes, he alleged.
READ | "Rs 14,000 Crore World Bank Loan Used In Bihar Polls": Jan Suraaj Claim
"Please remember... it was not till the Jan Suraaj promised Rs 2,000 old age pension that the government raised the amount from Rs 700 to Rs 1,100 per month," he declared, claiming also a section of Jan Suraaj voters opted for the NDA 'for fear of return of jungle raj under RJD'.
The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance recorded a landslide win in the Bihar election, picking up 202 of 243 seats. The opposition alliance, the Mahagathbandhan led by the RJD and Congress was utterly destroyed, winning only 35 seats; in 2020 the same alliance won 110.
READ | NDA Overdelivers In Bihar, Tejashwi & Co Crash Land. Next - Bengal
The RJD, which won 75 seats last time, got only 25 this time - its second-worst performance in a Bihar election after 2010. The Congress won six seats, down from 19 in the previous election.
In the victorious camp, the BJP won 15 seats more than it did five years ago to finish with 89 and Nitish Kumar's JDU, which slipped to a surprising low of 43 in the 2020 poll, rebounded with 85.
Nitish Kumar will now be sworn in as Chief Minister, again, on November 20.
Bihar voted in two phases -- November 6 and November 11 -- and recorded a voter turnout of over 66 per cent, the highest ever in the state since 1951.
