JDU's loss in bypoll comes as an 'exception', says Congress

Ruling JDU's loss in Bihar's Maharajganj Assembly bypoll comes as an "exception" when all the parties in power have registered wins in the recent byelections, Congress said today.
Party spokesperson Renuka Chowdhary, while downplaying the bypoll results as natural win of the ruling parties in states, said the loss of ruling JDU is an exception for "the BJP has to be worried that one of their allies have lost election. BJP has to be worried. They are going to lose an ally in future."
Asked about the speculation that BJP did not work to ensure the JDU nominee's win in the bypoll despite it being a prestige issue for Nitish Kumar, Chowdhary said, "BJP has to examine their conscience. Only they can say what they have done."

About the RJD's victory in the bypoll, she remarked, "Jo jeeta wahi Sikandar (the winner takes all)." The Congress spokesperson, however, remained non-committal on her party would go in for an alliance with RJD chief Lalu Prasad.
Chowdhary's remark came in the backdrop of a war of words between the two NDA parties over Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's chances of becoming BJP's prime ministerial candidate.
BJP general secretary Rajiv Pratap Rudy's views that Modi was required by his party and ally JD(U) to improve prospects in the general elections in Bihar and elsewhere in the country, have expressed strong reactions from JDU.

While JDU general secretary Shivanand Tiwari tersely said yesterday that the JDU does not need Modi, its spokesman Neeraj Kumar said in Patna today there was no need to "outsource" a leader in Bihar.

Bihar JD(U) president Bashist Narayan Singh was also unimpressed by the advice, saying , "BJP and JD(U) are two different parties who have come together to run a government in Bihar on the basis of certain agreed issues."
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's antipathy to Modi is well-known and there is almost an unanimity in JDU that it will party ways from BJP if the Gujarat Chief Minister is declared the Prime Ministerial candidate.

The defeat of ruling JD(U) in Bihar was a major victory for RJD chief Lalu Prasad, whose party won the Lok Sabha bypoll from Maharajganj with a margin of over 1.37 lakh votes.