Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Anil Kumar Sahani has blamed Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar for the Mahagathbandhan’s 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.
“Janata Dal (United) is responsible for the defeat in the Kurhani bye-election. It is not the fault of Mahagathbandhan,” Sahani said, adding, “If Nitish wants to strengthen the grand alliance, he should make Tejaswi the chief minister.”
According to some analysts, the defeat of JDU’s Manoj Kushwaha is the result of backlash to the Nitish Kumar government’s policy of liquor ban which has been called a “draconian law” 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 Kumar’s liquor policy, former JDU president RCP Singh said, “Nitish 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.”
In 2015, when CM Kumar led the first version of the grand alliance, BJP’s 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 RJD’s 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.