Bihar Assembly Polls: Powered by BJP, Nitish scripts 'nayi kahani'

Patna: After his clean sweep powered by an impressive BJP performance, Nitish Kumar said Bihar has chosen to end its association with caste politics to make a new beginning - a ''nayi kahani." He will form a new government on Friday.

The JD(U)-BJP combine is looking good to win 201 seats in the 243-seat Bihar Assembly, up 58 seats from the 143 it had in 2005. The Lalu-Yadav-led RJD-LJP combine is leading in 30 seats, down 34 from last time.

The man who will be Chief Minister again, was the last to respond to the Bihar election results. He waited till afternoon before acknowledging the landslide victory of his alliance.

Once it was clear he was back with a huge majority, Nitish Kumar thanked Bihar and said this was a victory of the people and not that of his alliance. He promised to work hard for Bihar and its people. He said development had won in Bihar. Nitish said he had no magic wand, but he would try and live up to the aspirations of the people.

Voters, he said, had to choose between progress or antiquated politics and they had chosen to surge ahead. "I promise the people of Bihar that we will work even harder than we have in the last five years. I will not shy away from hard work. We will face any tests together."

Bihar, he said, had chosen progress and the people wanted more of that. And he mde a point of women voting in unprecedented numbers, saying "this shows our progress." The youth too as key to this election and to the direction Bihar chose.

Nitish said the state had defeated the politics of cate and religion and that the verdict in the elections was the people's stamp of approval for that ending and for an agenda of development.

In his sober, low-key address, the Chief Minister could not help make a dig at Lalu Yadav and his years of rule when he said "no sooner would we fight elections that we'd land in hospital." He thanked the election commission, but credited the people for free, fair and violence-free elections.

But he did say that he now wanted to work with friend and foe alike to bring the best to Bihar adding "Na kahu se dosti, na kahu se bair." (No permanent friends or enemies)

Asked whether he was a strong contender for the Prime Minister's post in the future, Nitish said, with folded hands, that he was happy to serve the people of Bihar.

Source: http://www.ndtv.com/