Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Anil Kumar Sahani has blamed Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar for the Mahagathbandhanโs defeat in the Kurhani Assembly bye-election and demanded his resignation.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Kedar Gupta defeated Janata Dal-United (JDU) nominee Manoj Kushwaha in the bypolls held on December 5.
The bypolls in Kurhani were necessitated after Sahani was disqualified as an MLA following the award of three years sentence to him in a corruption case.
The former legislator demanded that RJD leader Tejaswi Yadav be made the next chief minister of Bihar.
โJanata Dal (United) is responsible for the defeat in the Kurhani bye-election. It is not the fault of Mahagathbandhan,โ Sahani said, adding, โIf Nitish wants to strengthen the grand alliance, he should make Tejaswi the chief minister.โ
According to some analysts, the defeat of JDUโs Manoj Kushwaha is the result of backlash to the Nitish Kumar governmentโs policy of liquor ban which has been called a โdraconian lawโ due to stringent punishment laid down in the Bihar Prohibition and Excise Act, 2016.
Many political leaders from across the political spectrum have called for the withdrawal of the liquor ban in Bihar, arguing that it has failed.
Criticising Kumarโs liquor policy, former JDU president RCP Singh said, โNitish should stop dreaming about becoming prime minister. He is facing defeats everywhere. His only focus is on the liquor ban. He is not able to focus on public welfare initiatives.โ
In 2015, when CM Kumar led the first version of the grand alliance, BJPโs Kedar Gupta won. In 2020, when he was part of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and Kedar Gupta contested as an NDA candidate, he lost to RJDโs Sahni by 712 votes.
In October this year, Sahni was disqualified from the Bihar Legislative Assembly after being awarded three years in prison for fraudulent withdrawal of money as then JD (U) Rajya Sabha MP against LTC (Leave Travel Concession) claims on forged bills.
