Patna, (Bihar Times): The Janata Dal (United) on
Wednesday retained the Bikramganj parliamentary seat
by a margin of 31,298 votes. The party candidate,
Meena Singh, defeated the Rashtriya Janata Dal
nominee, Ashok Khushwaha in a keenly contested battle.
The Janata Dal (U) candidate got 1,65,704 while the
RJD received 1,34,406. The Bahujan Samaj Party and CPI
ML ended up with 39,604 and 35,660 votes respectively.
Chief minister Nitish Kumar said that cutting across
caste and community lines the people voted for the
Janata Dal (U) candidate, which had the backing of the
BJP. This shows that the people are appreciating the
work being done by the state government.
The victorious candidate, Meena Singh, said that the
good work initiated by her late husband, Ajit Singh,
and the development plank of the Nitish government
ensured her victory. Howeve, the BSP and CPI ML held
the gross misuse of state machinery as the factor
responsible for the victory of Meena Singh.
Though the Janata Dal (U) managed to win the seat with
much reduced margin it can be said that sympathy wave
and division in the UPA votes also facilitated the
victory of Meena Singh. It needs to be mentioned that
though the LJP did not put up its candidate, it
decided to support the CPI ML nominee for the by-poll.