Bihar polls: 10 cabinet ministers suffer electoral defeat
Nov 11, 2020
By Sahil Pandey
Patna (Bihar) [India], November 12 : With the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) pulling off a victory in the recently concluded Bihar assembly elections, as many as 10 cabinet ministers, including eight from the Janata Dal (United) and two from the BJP, lost from their respective seats.
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had 32 ministers in his Cabinet out of which 24 were in the fray this election.
Five of them were from the State Legislative council, hence they didn't need to contest the legislative election, whereas two ministers Vinod Kumar Singh and Kapildeo Kamat passed away due to COVID complication.
From the JD(U) camp, Education Minister Krishna Nandan Prasad Verma lost the election from Jehanabad Assembly seat, Rural Minister Shailesh Kumar from Jamalpur, Transport Minister Santosh Kumar Nirala from Rajpur, Science and Technology Minister Jai Kumar Singh from Dinara, Social Welfare Minister Ram Sewak Singh from Hathua, SC/ST Welfare Minister Ramesh Rishideo from Singheshwar, Minority Affairs minister Khurshid from Sikta, and Disaster management minister Lakhmeshmeshwar Rai from Laukaha.
Urban Development Minister Suresh Kumar Sharma and Mines and Geology minister Brij Kishor Bind who contested on BJP tickets could not win in Muzzafarpur and Chainpur constituencies.
Notably, the presence of Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) candidates seriously dented the prospects of JD(U) ministers. Among those were Nitish Kumar's two prominent ministers- Jai Kumar Singh and Shailesh Kumar,
Results of all 243 assembly constituencies declared on Wednesday in which NDA secured 125 seats. BJP registered victories in 74 constituencies, JD(U) in 43, Vikassheel Insaan Party in 4, and Hindustani Awam Morcha in 4.
Opposition's Mahagathbandhan alliance fetched a tally of 110 seats out of which RJD bagged 75, Congress won in 19 and Left got 16 seats.
In the last cabinet, JD(U) had 17 ministers and BJP had 13, including Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Modi.
BJP and Nitish Kumar's JD(U) have contested elections as allies for most of the last two decades, barring the 2015 assembly polls when Nitish Kumar allied with Lalu Prasad Yadav's Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Congress.
In 2005, the JD(U) and BJP had fought on 139 and 102 seats, winning 88 and 55 respectively.
Then, in 2010, the JD(U) contested 141 seats and won 115, while the BJP contested 102 seats and won 91.
