The aspiration of the JDU and the RJD to expand their party base in Delhi was cut short as not a single candidate of the two allies could manage to save their deposits in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) elections, the results of which were declared on Wednesday.
The JDU had contested in 101 seats, whereas the RJD had fielded 15 candidates in the total 270 seats.
JDU national president and Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar had held two road shows apart from addressing public rallies in Badarpur and Burari in south and north Delhi respectively.
To consolidate the Purvanchal votes, Nitish had sent all his cabinet ministers from the JDU and more than 50 MLAs and MLCs to camp in Delhi. Despite that, the JDU did not even manage to win a single seat in the recently concluded polls.
When asked about the MCD poll results, Nitish chose to be ignorant.
"I don't have any idea about the MCD results," Nitish said on the sidelines of an event organised at SK Memorial Hall.
The question was asked after 3pm when results of most of the seats were declared.
When The Telegraph contacted JDU national general secretary and in-charge of Delhi unit Sanjay Jha to get a reaction over the MCD results at 12noon, he said the party had only made an attempt in the MCD polls.
"Even parties such as AAP, which are quite old, could not make it. We are just two-month-old in Delhi. Give me some time and let me figure out the vote share. Only then I will be able to speak on this. Call me at 2pm."
When contacted at 2pm, he did not pick up the phone. Repeated attempts went futile and later his phone was found switched off.
JDU state general secretary Manjit Kumar Singh, who was camping in Delhi for the past 25 days, said: "We need to work harder to gain the trust of the voters in Delhi. It was not an easy task for us to camp in Delhi for so many days. Victory and defeat are part of elections. Next time we will try harder."
Pooja Singh from Om Vihar ward in south Delhi got the maximum number of votes of 2,857. There were candidates who could not even reach a double-digit figure.
Soon after the results were declared, RJD chief Lalu Prasad called for unity among the Opposition. Lalu said till the time the Opposition parties do not unite, the results are going to be the same. He also demanded a probe into the functioning of electronic voting machines.
"The results are going to be the same unless there is unity in the Opposition, however, there is a need for a probe into the EVMs' functioning," Lalu said before leaving for Samastipur.
RJD MLA from Masauri Bhai Birendra slammed the chief minister for sending the JDU legislators to the national capital. "Nitish Kumar has wasted public money by sending MLAs and ministers to New Delhi to camp for the MCD polls," Birendra said.
Before the elections, both the parties had claimed they were contesting the polls to expand and strengthen their base in other states.
The BJP on Wednesday smirked at the JDU and the RJD after the devastating results.
Senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi said after Arvind Kejriwal, Nitish Kumar is the only chief minister who had carried out road shows and addressed rallies before the MCD polls.
"Nitish conducted road shows in the scorching heat and despite that the Biharis living in Delhi snubbed him. During the rally, he has extensively talked about liquor prohibition. His party should have at least won a few seats for the sake of prohibition but it shows even the liquor ban alibi is a failure," said Sushil.
Nand Kishore Yadav of the BJP said the RJD and the JDU not only fielded their candidates but lost their security deposits as well.
BJP MLC Mangal Pandey said: "People of Delhi have rejected the face of Nitish."
Party state unit president Nityanand Rai said the victory in MCD polls is a sign of people's faith in Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
