'Janata malik hai', says Nitish Kumar after NDA bypoll debacle

A day after the ruling NDA lost a by-election to the opposition RJD, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Sunday asserted that the will of people is supreme.

"Janata Malik hai" was his terse reply to journalists who sought his reaction on the Bochahan assembly bypoll, which saw the BJP losing to the Tejashwi Yadav-led party by a big margin.

The RJD stunned the ruling NDA on Saturday after its young candidate Amar Paswan defeated his nearest BJP rival Baby Kumari by a massive margin of 36,658 votes in the by-election.

The outcome has come as a jolt to the ruling coalition, more so to the BJP, for which a victory would have been a vindication of sorts in the wake of recent moves like sacking Nishad leader Mukesh Sahani from the cabinet and eviction of Chirag Paswan from the house of his late father Ram Vilas Paswan.

The chief minister, who was talking to reporters at the headquarters of his Janata Dal (United), was also asked about the apprehension of a spike in coronavirus cases which has led to clamping of fresh restrictions in some places.

"We will handle it well in Bihar since we never let our guard down. For quite some time, the number of cases reported in a day across the state has been in a single digit. Yet we are maintaining a high testing rate," Kumar said.

He also stated that the government was making efforts to keep under check the outbreak of encephalitis, commonly known as brain fever, that typically strikes Bihar every summer.

He also said arrangements were being made to meet the challenges that unusually high temperatures prevailing in the state may bring.