Patna, Dec. 23: The Jharkhand Assembly election results in the BJP's favour today have come as a setback to Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad as the key players are busy scripting the merger of the Janata Parivar factions in a bid to stop the party's roller coaster in Bihar, going to the polls later next year.

It is for the first time in the history of Jharkand since its creation in 2000 that the two-parties - RJD and JDU - have lost their relevance in the neighbouring tribal state's House. The RJD and JDU have drawn blank against seven and two MLAs the two parties had respectively won in the 2009 elections.

Also, it is for the first time that the BJP-led alliance appears set to form the government on its own. The party forming its strong government in the neighbourhood will, if anything, amounts to inflicting a sense of psychological defeat on Lalu and Nitish in the run up to the Assembly elections in October-November 2015.

Assessed on a plane of realistic politics, Lalu and Nitish have seldom been the mainstream operators on Jharkhand's turf since its inception in 2000. In this election, the RJD's vote-share came down to 3 per cent from 5 per cent in 2009 and the JDU got barely 1 per cent.

Reacting on the results, Lalu said: 'The secular alliance could not be put in place in Jharkhand. The BJP has won because of the disunity of the secular forces.'

Nitish too reacted in a same manner: 'The unity of the secular forces is taking place now. The BJP will not be able to repeat its Jharkhand's performance in the state.'

Bihar chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi said: 'The BJP has failed to perform in accordance with the hype it had created in Jharkhand and Jammu and Kashmi.'