The ruling Janata Dal (United) in Bihar retained the Kalyanpur (SC) Assembly seat in Samastipur district. Its candidate Manju Devi defeated the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) candidate Rekha Paswan by a sizeable 16,432 votes, deputy election officer Baijunath Kumar said. Lalu Prasad Yadav’s Rashtriya Janata Dal had lent its backing to LJP.
Manju Devi secured 59,325 votes, while Ms. Paswan got 42,893 votes. The Congress candidate Anita Ram ended third by securing 8,221 votes, followed by Jivach Paswan of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation, who got 4,352 votes. A total of 1,31,988 votes were cast in a by-election held on February 24.
The bypoll was necessitated following the death of the sitting JD (U) MLA Ramsevak Hazari.
Congratulating Manju Devi, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar termed the JD (U)’s win as “people’s victory.” Mr. Kumar said the Opposition had been carrying out a vicious propaganda for the past seven to eight months against the National Democratic Alliance, but it cut no ice with the people of Bihar.
“The by-election result has proved that people want to follow the path of development,” Mr. Kumar said in an official statement.
