Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, whose JD(U) on Thursday lost to BJP in a bypoll, appeared to draw comfort from the victories of Congress and Samajwadi Party in the Himachal Pradesh assembly election and Mainpuri Lok Sabha seat by-election in Uttar Pradesh respectively.
The 71-year-old politician, who is hopeful of a united Opposition front defeating the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, came out with a couple of tweets hailing the electoral performances of the Congress and the SP.
"Heartiest congratulations and best wishes to the Indian National Congress upon winning a majority in the assembly elections for Himachal Pradesh," tweeted the JD(U) leader, who is now a part of the 'Mahagathbandhan' (Grand Alliance) of which the grand old party is a constituent.
In another tweet, he congratulated Dimple Yadav, the victorious SP candidate at Mainpuri, as well as her husband and former Uttar Pradesh CM Akhilesh Yadav, who heads the Samajwadi Party.
The bypoll to Mainpuri was necessitated by the death of SP founder Mulayam Singh Yadav, whom Kumar has known since they were both in the Lok Dal, way back in the 1980s.
The Congress wrested the hill state from the BJP while the SP retained its pocket borough in UP, thwarting the saffron party which rules that state.
Bypoll was also held for the Kurhani assembly seat in Bihar, where JD(U) lost to BJP.
Kumar, the de facto leader of the JD(U), has not spoken on the debacle so far.
