No party big or small in NDA: Bihar BJP chief hails sweeping mandate as alliance races ahead

Bihar BJP president Dilip Jaiswal on Friday said no party is big or small in the NDA as the ruling alliance was set to sweep the Bihar polls with its constituents leading in 206 of the 243 Assembly constituencies in the state.

The BJP was set to outperform Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's JD(U) for the second consecutive Assembly elections.

Jaiswal said the verdict reflected the people's overwhelming endorsement of the development model under Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the chief minister.

"The people liked the development brought by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. They have given us an enormous victory, an unprecedented success. For this, we bow our heads before them," he told reporters, amid a swirl of congratulatory handshakes and celebratory drumming outside the BJP office.

Asked whether the BJP's stellar performance, leading in 95 of the 101 seats it contested, and comfortably ahead of the JD(U)'s 84, would upset the internal balance of the alliance, Jaiswal said, "No party is big or small in the NDA." "Please don't get into that," he repeated, even as the party "pulling ahead again", just as it did in the 2020 Assembly polls.

On questions about women voters' support, he remained measured in his reply.

"The people have given us a huge mandate. We must accept it with humility and bow before them. That is all that matters right now," he said.

The trends underscored a broader political realignment: the RJD's swagger from being the single-largest party in 2020 evaporated, the Congress struggled with just a handful of leads, and the Mahagathbandhan (the Opposition INDIA bloc in local parlance) appeared adrift.

Within the NDA, JD(U)'s strong performance, nearly doubling its 2020 tally, was attributed by party workers to the seamless blend of the "Modi guarantee" and Nitish Kumar's "good governance -Sushashan imprint".

Still, the BJP's projected dominance for a second straight assembly cycle is expected to revive quiet demands within sections of the party for a “BJP chief minister”.

The PM and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, however, have so far been ambivalent on the issue, insisting that the NDA was “led by Nitish Kumar in Bihar”, a strategy that may have been adopted in view of the fact that the BJP, which does not have a majority in Lok Sabha, and is dependent on allies like JD (U), and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu's TDP for survival in power.

But on Friday, Jaiswal kept the focus tightly on unity.

“Today, the NDA bows before the people of Bihar. Nothing else is bigger than people's mandate,” he said.