Counting for the 243-seat Bihar Assembly is underway, with early trends indicating that the Mahagatbandhan might have an advantage. However, while it is far too early to ascertain a winner or loser, Tej Pratap Yadav who is contesting as the RJD candidate from the Hasanpur seat has already faced fluctuations that saw him trail behind his JD(U) opponent for quite some time.
Early trends had showed that as of 10:45 am, Lalu Prasad Yadav's older son had managed to secure 34.2% of the votes, while JD(U) leader Raj Kumar Ray leads the race with 46.87% of the votes, out of a total of 11,993 votes.
Since then however, things have turned around for Tej Pratap Yadav. At 11:45 am he had secured both the lead and 45.41% of the votes. Raj Kumar Ray now comes in second with 36.29% of the votes.
But while this may be cause for celebration in the JD(U) camp, all is most certainly not well with the party at present. Barely two hours into the counting, party spokesperson KC Tyagi appeared to concede defeat while interacting with the media. And while he held several tangential factors responsible for the same, the spokesperson didn't not strike an optimistic note.
"In last one year, nothing has harmed brand Nitish or added to brand RJD, we're losing only due to COVID19 impact," he was quoted as saying by news agency ANI. He also noted that even a year ago, the RJD "couldn't win a single seat in Lok Sabha polls".
According to reports, Tyagi also appears to hold LJP and its leader Chirag Paswan responsible at least in part for the JD(U)'s loss of popularity. For the unitiated, while Paswan has repeatedly avowed his loyalty to the BJP and Prime Minister Modi, he has also constantly criticised the NDA's chief Ministerial candidate, Nitish Kumar. This, many opine, may have swayed voters to go against the JD(U) leader.
