For NDA, 4 huge defeats, 1 narrow win

Sigriwal, who defeated Prabhunath Singh of the RJD to the Lok Sabha, saw Singh’s son Randhir taking his former assembly seat of Chhapra. An assembly segment of Saran that had given the BJP a lead of about 25,000 votes in the Lok Sabha poll, Chhapra reversed that by giving Randhir a 24,000-vote margin. It signalled a successful Muslim-Yadav-Rajput combination worked out by the RJD, with help from EBCs.

Chhapra was also a battle of prestige for Lalu, who had represented Saran several times, and whose wife Rabri Devi lost it to Rajiv Pratap Rudy.

Mohiuddinngar, won by the BJP in 2010, fell to the RJD by 21,530 votes. Here, the party had hoped for a Rajput-EBC combination but it was the RJD that struck the right social combination with a Yadav candidate, Ajay Kumar Bulganin, while the BJP’s former winner Rana Gangeshwar Singh had switched over to the JD(U).

Jale was a surprise defeat for the BJP, thanks to rebel Vijay Mishra fielding his son Rishi Mishra from the JD(U). Here again, the BJP failed to wean away part of the upper-caste Brahmin votes. Rishi defeated the BJP’s Ramniwas Prasad by 7,720 votes. The RJD retained Rajnagar, winning by 3,448 votes, its only narrow victory.

Parbatta was the JD(U)’s biggest triumph as former minister R P Singh defeated the LJP’s Suheli Mehta by 56,990 votes. This seat saw a rare combination of upper caste Bhumihars and OBC Yadavs along with Dalits voting together in favour of the JD(U), busting a BJP formula of rallying the upper castes.
Mohania and Narkatiaganj gave the BJP it two larger wins, by 19,851 and 15,742 votes.