president) Amit Shah,” analyst Sanjay Kumar said.
“But this is also a credit to Nitish Kumar’s record of development in Bihar,” said Kumar, head of the New Delhi-based Centre for the Study of Developing Societies. Kumar, a long-time critic of Modi, has been praised for kick-starting development and attempting to quash corruption during his first two terms in office.
The BJP needed a win in Bihar after suffering a humiliating defeat in the February elections for the Delhi state assembly to a fledgling anti-corruption party.
The loss comes just days before Modi heads to Britain for talks with his UK counterpart and to address a massive crowd of the Indian diaspora at the Wembley Stadium.
BJP spokesman Narsimha Rao denied the loss was a personal blow for Modi, saying the odds were stacked against their party after regional rivals joined forces.
“This election was loaded against us. It is a defeat of the arithmetic,” Rao told India Today TV. “Our PM has delivered even in this election. It is because of his appeal that we managed a creditable performance,” Rao said.
Modi was up against an unlikely alliance of two powerful Bihar leaders, Kumar and his predecessor Lalu Prasad Yadav, who has served time in prison for corruption.
In state capital Patna, Kumar and Yadav hugged each other on stage, as supporters celebrated in the streets with dancing and firecrackers. “The people of Bihar thumped the BJP. It’s a lesson for the party,” Yadav said.
The Bihar campaign has been dogged by religious tensions after several Muslims were killed in separate incidents elsewhere in the country by Hindu mobs who suspected them of stealing or eating cows, animals that Hindus consider sacred.
Although Modi appealed for unity during the campaign, critics accused his government of failing to rein in Hindu hardliners.Analysts said Muslims, who make up 15 percent of Bihar´s population, voted against the BJP, along with lower castes who sided with traditional allies Kumar and Yadav.