Bihar’s through-election for the Kurhani meeting seat has now no longer long past in favour of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and his seven-celebration Grand Alliance. The victor turned into the BJP’s Kedar Gupta, who has crushed Janata Dal United’s Manoj Kushwaha through 3,662 votes. The take a look at of electricity turned into the primary given that Mr. Kumar ended his alliance with the BJP and turned into visible as a referendum of types on the brand new Mahagath bandhan in Bihar. This turned into the 0.33 time Mr. Kumar misplaced from the Kurhani meeting seat. Much of it turned into a depend of good fortune and timing. In 2015, while Mr Kumar led the primary model of the Grand Alliance, Kedar Gupta won, however as a BJP candidate. In 2020, while Mr Kumar turned into a part of NDA and Kedar Gupta contested as an NDA candidate, he misplaced to Rashtriya Janata Dal’s Anil Sahni through 712 votes. Bypolls withinside the Kurhani meeting phase have become essential after RJD MLA Anil Kumar Sahani turned into disqualified after receiving a prison time period in a corruption case.

The victory could be a feather withinside the BJP’s cap, executed with a respectable margin towards a seven-celebration alliance, and it’s far anticipated to empower the detractors of the Chief Minister. Most of the leaders of Mr Kumar’s Janata Dal United remember the photograph in their candidate, Manoj Kushwaha, as a cause for the defeat. Mr Kushwaha has seemingly irked many via his interference, in particular on the nearby level. But the actual cause, one that even Mr Kumar’s staunch supporters concede off the record, is the liquor ban imposed through the Chief Minister. Under the regulation, imposed in April 2016, now no longer simplest branded alcohol, however additionally toddy has been banned.

This, leaders say, is politically suicidal, because it has adversely affected the employment of lakhs of humans from the Dalit network withinside the whole state. The police motion in instances of violations of toddy ban, there has been quite a few resentment some of the nearby humans. The alliance, thus, suffered withinside the Kurhani constituency, which has approximately 18 percent of Dalits. Leaders of the JD(U) at the moment are hoping that the end result of this election will pressure a reconsider at the liquor regulation withinside the state.

Mr. Kumar, aleven though has staunchly sponsored the prohibition, which had introduced him robust help from the ladies of the state. In October 2016, while the Patna High Court set apart the liquor ban, the Nitish Kumar authorities introduced withinside the debatable Bihar Prohibition and Excise Act, 2016 – a brand new regulation which critics referred to as draconian due to its strict penalties.