Patna: The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in Bihar headed by chief minister Nitish Kumar suffered a major setback, with the Grand Alliance bagging two of the three seats in what was widely projected as a “seminal final” to the next Lok Sabha polls due in 2019.

The by-elections to three constituencies — the Araria Lok Sabha seat and two assembly seats, Jehanabad and Bhabua — were necessitated due to death of the candidates.

In Muslim-dominated Araria, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) candidate Sarfaraz Alam had established a decisive lead of more than 43,000 votes over his nearest rival, BJP candidate Pradeep Singh after the 17th round of counting, as per a latest report.

The RJD people have already started celebrating victory without waiting for the final 25th round of counting as they are sure margin of victory can only increase.

The seat was earlier represented by RJD’s Mohammad Taslimuddin but after his death, ticket was given to his son Alam, who was in chief minister Kumar’s Janata Dal United.

The entire NDA went all out to woo voters while the BJP tried to cause the polarisation of Hindu votes by issuing an inflammatory statement against the RJD candidate, leading to the registration of case against state BJP chief Nityanand Rai notwithstanding that the party is trailing by a huge margin.

Likewise, in Jehanabad assembly by-polls, RJD’s Krishnamohan Yadav defeated JD-U’s Abhiram Sharma by over 35,000 votes whereas in Bhabua while the BJP’s Rinki Rani Pandey defeated Congress’ Shamboo Patel by a little over 15,000 votes.

Although the respective candidates retained their seats yet the victory margin tells an altogether different story.

The by-elections in Bihar assumed much significance since they were being held for the first time since chief minister Kumar broke away from the erstwhile ruling Grand Alliance and returned to the NDA in July last. The polls were expected to gauge the public response.

The significance of the by-elections could be underlined from the fact that the chief minister launched extensive election campaigns in the company of BJP and other allies. The popularity of the chief minister was put to the test, especially in Jehanabad which was offered to him by the BJP after Kumar’s JD-U initially refused to join the by-elections. Things turned interesting when the JD-U candidate walked out of the counting centre much before the result was declared.

The second important factor involving the by-polls was that they were held in the absence of RJD president Lalu Prasad who is currently serving jail term following a conviction in two fodder scam cases.

In his absence, the campaigning was launched by his younger son, Tejashwi Yadav, who was the deputy chief minister in the previous Grand Alliance government.

If the results are any indications, the masses will have taken Tejashwi seriously.

All through the poll campaign, Tejashwi reminded the voters how chief minister Kumar has “insulted” the people’s mandate by switching loyalty and forming government with the support of the BJP while he had won the last 2015 state polls with the support of Grand Alliance.