Two days after losing deposit in Bihar’s Kurhani, Vikassheel Insaan Party celebrates

Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP) president Mukesh Sahani on Saturday distributed sweets in Kurhani, the assembly segment in Bihar where his candidate lost his deposit in the recent by-poll, as he celebrated his having become “a factor” in the state’s politics.

The Bollywood set designer-turned-politician, who had been propped up by the BJP only to be dropped like a hot potato, made it clear that he will be part of “some coalition” by the time the state witnessed another electoral contest.

“BJP’s victory in Kurhani was mentioned by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his speech in Delhi. The party’s winning candidate, Kedar Prasad Gupta, has stated that the Nishad community did not vote for him en bloc. That is an acknowledgment of our worth,” said the former state minister who uses the nickname “Son of Mallah” to assert his caste identity.

The VIP candidate in Kurhani, Neelabh Kumar, polled close to 10,000 votes, finishing a distant third after the winner and the runner-up, Manoj Singh Kushwaha of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s JD(U). The BJP, on cloud nine over having snatched the seat from the ruling “Mahagathbandhan” in the state, claimed that Sahani had played the role of a “spoiler” at the instance of the CM, who quit the NDA in August.

The VIP chief, who was ousted from the state cabinet at BJP’s instance in June, nonetheless insisted “our party has contested two of the by-polls held in Bihar in recent times. We have polled a total of more than 40,000 votes”. “In Bochahan assembly seat earlier this year, we had polled close to 30,000 votes. In Kurhani, we suffered because BJP got several dummies to disperse Nishad votes,” claimed Sahani.

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The VIP chief, who had started as a ‘Mahagathbandhan’ ally ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, made a dramatic exit in the thick of assembly polls a year later, when a personal meeting with Union Home Minister Amit Shah clinched his deal with the NDA.

He, however, entered the BJP’s bad books after he repeatedly attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath while campaigning for assembly elections in the adjoining state, where his party contested more than 50 seats but sunk without a trace.

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Asked about his future course of action, Sahani said, “We will discuss the matter with party workers and supporters and then take a call. As of now I will only say that we will be facing our next election as part of a coalition that gives us our due,” he replied. 

(This report has been published as part of the auto-generated syndicate wire feed. No editing has been done in the headline or the body by ABP Live.)