Patna, Nov. 24: This Assembly elections, the Bihar voters have been harsh at party-hoppers. The leaders who threatened to sway vote of their caste or community bite dust.

Dissident JD (U) leader and MP Lallan Singh joined the anti-Nitish Kumar van days before the elections swearing he would bring Nitish Kumar to the ground. He claimed that he would persuade the upper caste to vote against the NDA partners.

He campaigned for the Congress. The outcome: The Congress lost out in all the seats Lallan claimed were under his influence.

Prabhunath Singh also joined hands with Lalu Prasad. “After November 24, Nitish Kumar will be history,” Singh had declared at the Milan Samaroh held in Chhapra, claiming that his joining signified the end of traditional hostility between Yadavs and Rajputs in Bihar.

Prabhunath has the consolation of his brother winning on an RJD ticket in one of the seats in Saran, his bastion. But the RJD-LJP alliance has been wiped out from Saran. Prabhunath could not even ensure Rajput votes for Rabri Devi in Sonepur, which he had promised to Lalu.

JD (U) MP Mahabali Singh’s son contested for the RJD. So did the brother of another JD (U) MP Sushil Singh. JD (U) MP Monajir Hussain’s wife contested from Munger as an RJD candidate.

All the three MPs claimed that they would get their castes and community to vote for the RJD. But their caste men did not follow their diktat and their kin lost. RJD leader Shakuni Choudhary, who claimed to be leaders of substantial Koeri caste in Bihar, lost. So did traditional party-hopper Nagmani and his wife Suchitra Sinha.

Just before the elections there were substantial numbers of leaders hopping from one party to another in the hope of getting tickets.

The Congress outstripped other political parties in inducting borrowed players and declaring them to be winning candidates. But the results show that the run of party-hoppers has been as going of the party.

While most of the party-hoppers who joined the RJD-LJP alliance lost, those joining the JD (U) emerged victorious.

Chief minister Nitish Kumar himself hinted that the election results were a lesson for those who claimed to be leaders of their caste. Bihar voters have grown beyond caste and sectional leaders and have given a message that you win only when you are on the right side.

The face of party hoppers is immaterial.