Patna: RJD national working president Tejashwi Prasad Yadav on Tuesday attributed the BJP’s defeat in Bankipur byelection to the “negative politics” of chief minister Samrat Choudhary and a growing trust deficit between the party and voters.Tejashwi told reporters, “CM Samrat Choudhary failed to win public confidence and trust in his govt’s development agenda within 100 days of becoming chief minister.” He was accompanied by RJD state president Mangani Lal Mandal and senior functionary Abdul Bari Siddiqui.He alleged that the BJP had changed its candidate for the bypoll and the police “kept harassing the opposition”. As a result, he said, voters had “taught the BJP a lesson” in an electoral contest that had turned into a direct fight between the people and the saffron party.Asked about the RJD candidate losing her security deposit in the triangular contest involving the BJP, RJD and Jan Suraaj, Tejashwi said, “We accept the mandate of the people, who voted against the BJP-led NDA.”Tejashwi also criticised the govt over the recent murder of Dehri municipality executive officer Vimal Kumar in Rohtas district.Referring to statements attributed to the deceased’s wife, the driver and the police, Tejashwi said the differing versions of the incident warranted an impartial inquiry and “fitting punishment to the guilty”.He also said the court should take suo motu cognisance of the case. Tejashwi said he had written to the chief minister over the matter.Meanwhile, reacting to the Bankipur result from Delhi, RJD’s Buxar MP Sudhakar Singh described it as a “landslide defeat” for the BJP, noting that the party had also lost the Datia assembly seat in Madhya Pradesh.Singh claimed the BJP was in a state of “decline in north India”. He attributed the Bankipur result to failures of the central and state govts, paper leaks, student protests, irregularities in the management of donations at the Ram temple in Ayodhya and incidents such as the killing of Bharat Bhushan Tiwari in Bhojpur.“The Bankipur result was expected. It is a major setback for the BJP,” Singh said.
