Patna, Jan. 2: Nitish Kumar could not ask for more than this New Year gift.

The chief minister’s party — JD(U) — has retained the Bikramganj Lok Sabha seat with its nominee Meena Singh defeating her nearest RJD rival Ashok Kushwaha by a margin of over 30,000 votes.

“People have once again put a stamp of approval on our development work. All the sections of the electorate — breaking caste and communal barriers — supported the JD(U) nominee,” an elated chief minister later said.

In fact, the results on Bikramganj seat today has once again brought to the fore the fact that Lalu Prasad has been consistently losing grounds in the state.

Bikramganj had offered a somewhat “ideal” caste combination for his party’s nominee for the central Bihar’s constituency, which had Yadavs as the single largest caste in it. Besides, the constituency also had Kushwaha and Muslims in fairly good number.

Moreover, aware of the political importance of this seat, the RJD boss camped in the constituency roaming around in the remote areas for six straight days. Still his party nominee, Kushwaha who belonged to the Kushwaha community, has eaten a humble pie against Meena Singh, a Rajput and widow of former MP Ajit Singh.

A pall of gloom has descended on the RJD camp. But RJD state chief Abdul Bari Sidiqui conceded the defeat with what is being described as a “laboured” logic.

“We accept our defeat. But the JD(U) has not won either. The party has only retained the seat in a poll in which only 30 to 35 per cent voters exercised their franchise. Most of the voters stood indoor due to fear of goons and paramilitary forces.”

Political observers, however, attach importance to the result in the sense that the Bikramganj was probably the last seat to go the bypoll ahead of the general elections slated next year. They tend to describe this result as a “prelude” to what are in store in the coming Lok Sabha polls in Bihar.

It is not that Lalu Prasad has been reduced a “political non-entity” in the state, for the victory margin proves that his nominee too has got sumptuous share of the votes. But he seems to have lost the support of extremely backward classes, Dalits and the Muslims used to provide him by siding with his Muslim-Yadav combination that have been “nucleus” of his base in Bihar.

The results have proved that JD(U) has made a heavy dent in the extremely backward classes, the Muslims and even the Dalit votes. The special reservation to the extremely backward classes, constitution of the Mahadalit Commission and largess to the Muslims in a big way coupled with the development work probably have helped JD(U).