Lok Sabha Elections 2024: Bihar political parties begin reviewing results

Since the results of the Lok Sabha elections were announced on June 4, political parties in Bihar have been reflecting on their performance. The state unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) held a debriefing in Patna on June 13, while its ally, the Janata Dal (United), convened a national executive meeting in Delhi on June 29. The opposition Rajya Sabha Jawaharlal Nasional (RJD) is holding a two-day debriefing in Patna on June 20 and 21, with party leader Laloo Prasad expected to participate.

The BJP contested 17 assembly seats in Bihar under a seat-sharing arrangement with the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) Janata Dal (JD(U)) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (Ram Vilas) and won 12 of them. The party was the first to hold a review meeting to discuss the selection of candidates, caste factors, alleged negligence of party members and leaders at the local level, and reports of complacency among some candidates that contributed to the party’s “substandard” performance. In 2019, the BJP had won all 17 seats it contested and this time, party leaders had asserted that the NDA would win all 40 Lok Sabha seats in the state. However, the BJP not only lost seats but also saw its vote share fall from 24.5% to 20.52%. In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the party had won 29.40% of the votes.

Senior state BJP leaders, including Deputy Chief Minister Samrat Choudhury, Deputy Chief Minister Vijay Kumar Singh and organisational general secretary Bhik Bhai Darsania, were present at the meeting. “We reflected on our poor performance and declining vote share. The report of the meeting will be submitted to party’s Bihar in-charge Vinod Tawde soon,” a state BJP leader said. Hindu I would like to remain anonymous.

Party sources said feedback has been sought from booth and block-level party workers, district presidents, Lok Sabha constituency in-charges and conveners mainly on three aspects — what has worked in their favour, what has not worked and how.

The NDA performed better in North Bihar than South Bihar, winning 18 of the 21 seats in Champaran, Mithila, Tirhut and Seemanchal (border) districts, excluding Katihar, Purnia and Kishanganj. However, it lost seven of the 10 seats in South Bihar – Aurangabad, Sasaram, Karakat, Buxar, Ara, Jehanabad and Patliputra. In 2019, the BJP had won five of the seven seats.

The BJP’s coalition partner, the JD(U), which performed well despite reports that Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s repeated political tossing and turning has left him unpopular, is also scheduled to review its election results at the party’s national executive meeting in Delhi on June 29. Of the 16 seats it contested, the JD(U) won 12, the same number as the BJP. The JD(U)’s vote share also fell from 22.3% in 2019 to 18.52% in 2024. The meeting will be attended by party leader Kumar, as well as Rajiv Ranjan Singh (popularly known as Lallan Singh) and Ramnath Thakur, who recently joined Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s cabinet as ministers.

The opposition RJD is also holding a two-day review meeting on June 20 and 21, which will be attended by Prasad and his son and political successor Tejashwi Yadav. The RJD won only four of the 23 seats it contested in the elections. Mahagathbandhan The party is in a coalition government with the Indian National Congress, the Vikasir Insaam Party and three Left parties, but it still managed to get the highest vote share in the state, 22.14%, up from 15.7% in 2019.