Buckets of hot jalebis vanished almost as quickly as they arrived and drums throbbed in the late-morning air on Friday as celebrations erupted outside the JDU headquarters in Patna. Party workers, emboldened by early trends showing the ruling NDA well ahead in the Bihar polls, turned the street into a festive arena.
What began as a cautious clutch of supporters scrolling through election updates soon swelled into a boisterous crowd as the NDA’s lead stretched to 186 of the 243 seats. The JDU’s own 76-seat advantage sparked fresh rounds of cheers, firecrackers and thick clouds of smoke that hung over the party office.
A giant poster of Nitish Kumar was hoisted above the gathering, its edges whipping in the November breeze, while supporters smeared each other with green gulaal. “Nitish ji ki paanchvi jeet likhi ja chuki hai… bas formalities baaki hain,” one jubilant worker told a television crew, declaring the chief minister’s fifth victory a foregone conclusion.
Under a makeshift tarpaulin, a row of elderly loyalists kept up a steady beat on the dholak. Ramesh Yadav, a booth worker from Nalanda who said he had attended every celebration since 2005, told PTI: “Logon ne dekha hai kaun sarkar chalata hai aur kaun sirf hawa banata hai [People have seen who runs the government and who just creates hype].”
The mood grew more theatrical as a group of youths marched past with an oversized green thermocol arrow — the JDU’s symbol — chanting, “Teer chalega, Bihar badega!”
Policemen at the gate were not spared the drifting gulaal; one laughed that the excitement of a “paanchvi jeet [fifth victory]” felt different.
With the BJP leading in 85 seats and allies LJP (RV) and HAM(S) adding to the NDA’s momentum, the revelry only intensified.
By midday, the road outside the headquarters was littered with spent fireworks, green streaks of gulaal and crumpled sweet wrappers — a vivid, chaotic mural of a party convinced it was watching history repeat itself.