Bihar by-polls to test mettle of Laloo-Nitish alliance

By-elections to 18 Assembly seats across four states will be conducted on Thursday. Among these are 10 of Bihar, where new political configurations have come about since the Lok Sabha elections in May. The counting of votes will take place on August 25.

In Bihar, friends-turned-foes Laloo Prasad and Nitish Kumar have come together to fight against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA). The election results to Bihar's 10 seats could impact not just the longevity of the Jeetan Ram Manjhi-led Janata Dal (United), or JD(U), government in Patna. It could also give a peep into the voting pattern the electorate could throw in, for the Bihar Assembly elections in end-2015.

Prasad's Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Kumar's JD(U) and Congress alliance have a straight contest with BJP-Ram Vilas Paswan's Lok Janshakti Party (LJP)-Upendra Kushwaha's Rashtriya Loktantrik Samata Party (RLSP). The Lok Sabha elections, where NDA won 31 of the 40 seats, were a triangular contest between RJD-Cong, JD(U) and NDA.

Of the 10 seats, the BJP had won six in the 2010 Assembly elections, while RJD bagged three and JD(U) one. In the Lok Sabha elections, JD(U) and RJD vote share exceeded that of the BJP on four of these seats. An opinion poll has forecast an even battle, with the two alliances sharing five seats each. The elections would test the acceptance among the public of the Laloo-Nitish alliance.

Apart from 10 Assembly seats of Bihar, two in Punjab and three each in Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh will also go to polls on Thursday. The BJP, smarting under a reversal in the recent by-elections in Uttarakhand, is approaching the by-polls seriously.

Another notable contest in the offing is on the Shikaripura seat in Karnataka. BJP's candidate on the Assembly seat is B Y Raghavendra, son of former Karnataka chief minister B S Yeddyurappa. The seat was vacated by Yeddyurappa after successfully contesting from the Shimoga Lok Sabha seat. Yeddyurappa was recently inducted as a vice-president in BJP president Amit Shah's new team of party office bearers. Siddaramaiah, who leads the Congress government in Karnataka, is under some pressure after the party's unsatisfactory outing in the Lok Sabha elections in that state. The BJP won 17 of the 28 seats. The Congress will try retaining the Chikkodi-Sadalga seat and wresting the Shikaripura and Bellary Rural seats from the BJP.

In Punjab, Talwandi Sabo and Patiala go to polls on Thursday. The results are likely to reflect whether the Aam Aadmi Party continues to build on its good performance in the Lok Sabha; it had four seats in the state.