Patna: RJD president Lalu Prasad, currently in jail in Ranchi following conviction in fodder scam cases, on Wednesday termed the victory of his party in the bypolls as "victory of truth over falsehood".
The RJD retained the Araria Lok Sabha and Jehanabad Assembly seats while the BJP won in Bhabhua.
"The more you pour the fuel of conspiracy on Lalu, the brighter will his lantern burn. Millions of salutations to the people of Bihar for upholding justice. This is a victory of truth over falsehood," the RJD chief, whose party has the lantern as its election symbol, tweeted in Hindi.
Lalu's official Twitter handle is managed by his close confidants. The jailed leader has been expressing himself through the social media platform ever since he went behind bars in December last year.
The RJD boss has been accusing the Narendra Modi government at the Centre and the Nitish Kumar dispensation in Bihar of entering into a conspiracy to get him implicated in cases relating to fraudulent withdrawal of money from the treasury in various districts.
Lalu also thanked Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, who congratulated him on the "great victory", saying, "Thank you, didi. Together we are fighting. We shall fight and we will win."
Nitish described the outcome as a "sympathy result" as sons and the wife of the deceased lawmakers have won. "It will not effect the general elections," he said, recalling that in 2009 also, the NDA had lost most of the seats in the bypolls but won in the 2010 Assembly elections.
Notwithstanding Nitish's brave words, NDA leaders appear to have realised that they were up against "anger" of the people - particularly the downtrodden sections - during campaigning.
For example, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, who led the party's campaign in the absence of his father, was attracting larger crowds than Nitish.
Political sources, many of them from the NDA, attributed this anger primarily to the crackdown on the sand mafia. While the action against the mafia was welcomed, it has led to a scarcity of sand, making the construction sector to come to a virtual stand-still.
Over the past six months, thousands of construction workers, mainly hailing from the EBCs and Dalits, the same sections which used to rally around the NDA, were rendered jobless.
Another reason is the harsh implementation of anti-liquor laws: over 1.21 lakh persons have been arrested since the law was implemented in 2016.
Over 95 per cent of those arrested and jailed hailed from the downtrodden classes even as the well-off managed to get away by using money power. In several cases, as in Gaya, women too have been arrested under the law's stringent clauses. This has led to resentment among a section of Dalits who had to pay the police and lawyers to fight the police cases.
The NDA was able to win in 2010 primarily on the performance of Nitish.
Lately, however, Nitish has taken on the role of a social reformer. "Apart from caste combinations we have to retain our level of governance. The people have rejected Nitish Kumar as a social reformer," a JDU leader said under cover of anonymity, stressing that the results have further weakened the party's bargaining power with the BJP.
