Voters once again repose faith in Nitish’s devpt model, says JD(U)

PATNA: By ensuring the victory of JD(U) candidates in both Kusheshwar Asthan and Tarapur assembly bypolls, the voters have once again reposed faith in the development model of CM Nitish Kumar, JD(U) state president Umesh Singh Kushwaha told TOI after the results were announced on Tuesday.
“Our leader Nitish Kumar executed different kinds of development works across the state with the motto of ‘Development with Justice.’ The people have once again reposed their faith in the development model of Vikas Purush Nitish Kumar,” Kushwaha said.
However, Nitish congratulated the public of Kusheshwar Asthan and Tarapur for ensuring victory of JD(U) candidates. “In democracy, people are the masters and they have pronounced their verdict,” Nitish said in a statement.
With this triumph, the number of JD(U) MLAs in the 243-member assembly has once again reached 45. The party had won 43 seats in the 2020 assembly polls. Later, the lone BSP MLA, Zama Khan, and the only LJP MLA, Raj Kumar Singh, joined the JD(U). However, the party’s sitting MLAs Shashi Bhushan Hazari (Kusheshwar Asthan) and Mewalal Choudhary (Tarapur) died of Covid-19, leading to byelection in both the constituencies.
In Kusheshwar Asthan, JD(U) fielded Shashi Bhushan’s son Aman Bhushan while in Tarapur, Rajiv Kumar Singh was made the party candidate as Mewalal’s son lives in the US and was not ready to contest the bypolls.
“The victory of NDA-supported JD(U) candidates is the triumph of the policies and programmes of CM Nitish Kumar. It shows the people still have faith in the policies of Nitish,” JD(U)’s former state president and Rajya Sabha member Bashishtha Narain Singh said.
“The bypoll results are also a lesson for those who believe in the politics of ‘Visarjan’ (immersion),” Singh said, in an oblique reference to the controversial statement of RJD chief Lalu Prasad, who had said he (Lalu) would ensure the ‘Visarjan’ of CM Nitish.