Patna,(BiharTimes): The defeat of state education minister and Janata Dal (United) candidate in Maharajganj parliamentary seat, Prashant Kumar Shahi, by a relatively big margin of 1,35,000 votes is a double blow to the image of Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar.

Not only his most trusted lieutenant lost to Lalu Yadav’s RJD, the news came with the victory of Narendra Modi’s party in six seats––two Lok Sabha and four Assembly seats––in Gujarat.

While Nitish refused to comment to the media in New Delhi his minister and the candidate, Shahi, held the local BJP workers responsible for his defeat as they did not cooperate with him.

It is true RJD’s Uma Shankar Singh won this seat by defeating JD(U)’s Prabhunath Singh in 2009 but then the margin was just around 2,800 votes. The same Prabhunath switched over to RJD’s side and won by about 50 times more votes. This is not only surprising but reminds the Janata Dal (United) of the importance of BJP.

Candidate	Votes	% of votes polled
Prabhunath Singh (RJD) Winner	3,81,452	54.49
P K Shahi (JDU) Runner	2,44,326	34.90
Jitendra Swami (Cong.)	33,905

The Janata Dal (United) is hardly a cadre-based party. It has just leaders as well as the image of chief minister. It is the BJP which has the cadres. So in spite of leaving no stone unturned it suffered huge defeat.

What is strange is that only recently four senior RJD leaders of the region Awadh Bihari Chaudhary, Inder Deo Bhagat, Ram Pravesh Rai and Ejaz-ul-Haque joined the Janata Dal (United). The party will have to realize that it is becoming top heavy.

But the problem with Nitish is that he has taken the battle against BJP far too long. So in spite of token presence of deputy chief minster Sushil Kumar Modi and state party chief Mangal Pandey in the constituency hardly any BJP workers showed any enthusiasm for Shahi.

Shahi was banking on Bhumihar, EBC and Dalit votes. The margin of defeat suggests that RJD has certainly managed to make some dent in Nitish’s vote bank. While Bhumihars were apparently united, a section of them are extremely angry with Nitish. BJP ministers like Giriraj Singh and Chandra Mohan Rai and former state party chief Dr C P Thakur have repeatedly spoken against the chief minister.

Assembly segment	RJD	JDU	Difference
Tariya	62667	33023	29644
Baniapur	68715	41943	26772
Manjhi	67915	37641	30274
Ekma	55770	41176	14594
Maharajganj	54556	48904	5652
Goriakothi	71813	41637	30176

That was not enough. Indu Bhushan, the son of Ranvir Sena chief (now late) Brahmeshwar Singh, alias Mukhiyaji, openly went to campaign against JD(U) candidate. A large number of his supporters openly hold the Nitish Kumar government responsible for the murder of Mukhiyaji on June 1 last year.

So while Narendra Modi is about to be announced as the the chairman of the campaign committee of the Bharatiya Janata Party Nitish’s bargaining position within the NDA got a huge setback.

Instead of BJP Nitish banked too much on Congress for his victory in Maharajganj. Grapevine has it that Jitendra Swamy, the son of late Uma Shankar Singh, got the Congress party ticket because of none else but Nitish Kumar. The main purpose was to divide the Rajput votes. But the move backfired and the Congress lost its credit.

The Maharajganj election has the potential to alter the political map of the state as the JD(U) rank and file have started feeling demoralized. In private they are now blaming none else but Nitish Kumar for the debacle as he has unnecessarily antagonized the BJP for absolutely no reason.

There was nothing for Nitish to project as symbol of development in Maharajganj. So the poll took place on caste lines. And JD(U) failed even in that equation.