Return Of The Other Modi

The BJP in Bihar was on a high in March 2022-with three Vikassheel Insaan Party MLAs joining it, its tally in the state many BJP assembly went up to 77, making it the single largest party for the first time.

- Amitabh Srivastava

April, however, was a crueller month: first, at the legislative council elections, the ruling NDA alliance did much worse than before. Then, in mid-April, came the humiliation at the Bochaha assembly bypoll. That led, on April 21, to the stings from within that hurt leaders in Bihar-in a series of tweets, Rajya Sabha MP and former deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi publicly reflected on why the twin setbacks deserve “deeper introspection”.

Modi's open hint about a possible lack of synergy between his party and ruling alliance partner Janata Dal (United) was a sharp rap for the state BJP. The April 16 bypoll result had seen the RJD (Rashtriya Janata Dal)'s Amar Paswan crushing the BJP candidate, Baby Kumari, by a margin of over 36,500 votes. After the lacklustre show in polls for 24 legislative council seats the BJP won six seats, the JD(U) five, but the alliance lost 10 seats it held, and the RJD, winning six, emerged as the big gainer-the gloom had deepened.