Patna, Feb. 4: On February 10, when votes of Delhi Assembly polls would be counted, politicians sitting in Bihar, around 1,000km away from the national capital, would be busy working out their political strategies.

The anti-BJP political forces in Bihar, in fact, believe that a defeat for the BJP would make things easier for them here when the next Assembly elections would be held. These forces are also hopeful of putting up a joint front against the party in the coming Bihar Assembly elections, a feat which they failed to achieve during general election last year.

Bihar is next in the queue after Delhi so far as Assembly elections are concerned. The state is scheduled to go for voting in October-November this year.

'A BJP defeat in Delhi would break the 'invincibility' perception about the BJP. It would definitely help the anti-BJP political forces in Bihar as the anti-BJP voters would feel emboldened and would strengthen the hands of those who are out to stop the BJP juggernaut,' senior RJD legislator and electoral politics veteran Abdul Bari Siddiqui, who had first won Assembly elections in 1977, said.

After the May 2014 general election, the BJP has been scripting spectacular performances in the Assembly elections held in different states. It went on to emerge the biggest party in Maharashtra and got majority in Haryana. In the Jammu and Kashmir elections too, the party did quite well and emerged as the second largest party there. The BJP with alliance partners won the Assembly elections in Jharkhand, too.

Delhi elections, however, have turned out to be a different ball game where Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party has emerged as the frontrunner in almost all the pre-poll opinion polls giving hope to the anti-BJP forces.

The Congress too echoed the RJD's view. 'A defeat of the BJP in Delhi would change the perception of people which Narendra Modi and other BJP leaders have been trying to create ever since their victory in the Lok Sabha elections. Victory of secular forces against the BJP in Delhi would give impetus to such forces in Bihar as well,' state Congress president Ashok Choudhary said.

The ruling JDU went a step ahead and claimed that the BJP was bound to bite the dust in Bihar elections anyhow and its defeat in the Delhi Assembly elections would just strengthen the hands of those who stood against it. 'The BJP defeat in Delhi would just be an added advantage so far as the Bihar elections are concerned as people in general here feel cheated by the works done so far by the Narendra Modi government at the Centre,' senior JDU leader and water resources minister Vijay Kumar Chaudhary said.

Confronted with the difficult question of possibility of a united face against the BJP, as is the case with Delhi where the AAP appears to have emerged as a rallying point for the anti-BJP voters, the leaders of these three parties sounded confident. 'The perception that the RJD and JDU are going to merge is already there. Now the formalities regarding merger are to be worked out. It would be done sooner than later,' claimed Siddiqui. Vijay also said steps in this direction were already being taken.

Both these leaders also agreed that efforts would be made to enter into a pre-poll alliance with all secular forces to stage a tough fight for the BJP. Though state Congress president Ashok Choudhary refused to speak on this issue, claiming that the party would clear its stand after May, sources in the grand old party revealed that the Congress was more than willing to enter into a pre-poll alliance with like-minded parties to check the BJP's advancement in Bihar.

Veteran socialist leader Shivanand Tiwari, who recently announced his retirement from active politics, too accepted that a united face of he anti-BJP forces was bound to give tough time to the BJP in Bihar. He, however, appeared sceptical about any such possibility. 'The way things are moving in the ruling JDU, it appears that more than fighting the BJP many of its leaders are busy fighting chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi. Such things would help the BJP,' he said.

Amid these theories doing rounds in the political circles of Bihar, the BJP state unit tried to present a brave face claiming that Delhi elections outcome would hardly have any effect on Bihar elections.

'Our opponents are taking of perception but we don't feel so. Issues differ from states to states as far as Assembly elections are concerned. In Bihar, we would contest the elections on the twin issues of 'development' and 'law and order' and are confident of scripting success,' BJP state president Mangal Pandey said.