JD(U)-RJD will win 190 of 243 seats, Nitish to name dy CM: Lalu Prasad Yadav

PATNA: Within an hour of the end of voting on Thursday, a beaming RJD chief Lalu Prasad predicted a grand alliance landslide saying it would win 190 of Bihar’s 243 assembly seats, and reiterated that incumbent CM Nitish Kumar would continue to helm the alliance government.

“A decision on the deputy CM will be taken after the election results are out on Sunday,” Lalu said, adding that it would be Nitish’s call whether or not to have a deputy CM. The inimitable Yadav boss then told reporters that the BJP was nowhere in the picture, and said, “You ask ‘how’?”

With newsmen bursting into laughter – partly at his supreme confidence as also at the fact that he was giving the alliance 28 more than a two-thirds majority – Lalu explained: “More than 80% Dalits, backwards, minorities and the poor among upper castes voted for the RJD-JD(U)-Congress combine. Only rich voters supported NDA.”

He then added, “PM Narendra Modi said in his last election rally that Nitish had only six days to rejoice. Lekin hum logon ne Modi ko Chhatthi ka doodh yaad kara diya (we’ve taught Modi a lesson he’ll never forget),” he said.

Lalu admitted RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat’s calling for a review of the reservation policy played a big role in pushing the poor towards the grand alliance.

“They (BJP leaders) were thinking they would divide the backward votes by playing the communal card. But Bhagwat let the cat out of the bag and everyone came to know about the BJP’s game plan to snatch quota facility from backwards and Dalits,” he said, adding that the polarization among backwards and Dalits this time was more intense than in 1990.

“The upper caste voters, on whom the NDA was banking heavily, did not turn up at booths in large numbers, as they found it difficult to support and defend a PM who did not fulfill any of the promises he made during the parliamentary election,” Lalu said.

In reply to another question, Lalu doubted that Modi has a 56-inch chest. “Have you seen my chest? Only a Yadav or a Paswan or a poor man can have such a broad chest,” he said.