Patna, Mar 10 (PTI) Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Thursday congratulated the BJP, his ally for nearly three decades, over its stellar performance in assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Manipur and Goa.

Also Read | Assembly Election Results 2022: BJP Triumphs in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Goa And Manipur; AAP Decimates Congress in Punjab.

In a tweet, Kumar also credited “people's trust in the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi” for the party's return to power in the four states.

Also Read | Assembly Election Results 2022: BJP Set to Retain Power in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur; AAP Sweeps Punjab.

Kumar's own party, the JD(U), has been trying to make inroads in the northeast. It has emerged as the third-largest party with a tally of six seats in Manipur.

Meanwhile, BJP workers in Bihar were on cloud nine following the party's astounding success in the all-important electoral battle of UP, which sends the highest number of members to the Lok Sabha, including Modi himself.

The chants of “Jai Shri Ram” were raised on the floor of the assembly as the news of the party's surge was received.

A miffed RJD MLA, Kumar Sarvajeet, suggested to the Chair that it was high time a statue of Lord Shiva (Bholenath) was installed on the premises.

Speaker Vijay Kumar Sinha, who incidentally belongs to the BJP, went ahead with the proceedings and tried to restrain party MLA Sanjay Saraogi when he tried to preface his question with a tribute to the leadership of the prime minister which made possible the success in UP.

The BJP on Thursday retained power in the politically crucial state of UP, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur while the AAP swept Punjab. Led by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, the saffron camp created history by becoming the only party in several decades to return to power after completing a five-year term.

Outside the assembly, BJP MLAs expressed their delight by smearing each other's faces with “gulaal”, a week ahead of the festival of Holi. Similar scenes were witnessed at the party office where sweets were also distributed and state president Sanjay Jaiswal held a hurriedly called press conference to express the joy prevailing in the camp.

Some party leaders, however, seemed quite puffed up and they decided it was time to get even with a junior, but an unruly ally in Bihar.

Haribhushan Thakur Bachaul, who was recently in news for seeking disenfranchisement of Muslims if they did not recite “Vande Mataram”, demanded the resignation of minister Mukesh Sahani, who heads the Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP).

“He should resign on moral grounds. We are, in any case, going to oppose him tooth and nail," said Thakur referring to Sahani's recent tirade against the BJP during the elections in Uttar Pradesh.

The VIP had fielded more than 50 candidates in UP where it seems to have sunk without a trace. Sahani, who likes to go by the nickname “son of Mallah”, had hoped to make an impact by cutting into the votes of the Nishad community and play the “kingmaker”.

The ebullient Thakur also said Sahani should now forget about getting a fresh term in the legislative council since “we do not need him. We have Arjun Sahani and Madan Sahani”.

Arjun Sahani is a BJP MLA while Madan Sahani, who is from the JD(U), is a minister. Mukesh Sahani had lost his own seat in the 2020 assembly polls but was inducted into the cabinet, understandably, upon the insistence of the BJP. He got elected to the Vidhan Parishad from the seat which fell vacant upon the election of BJP MLC Binod Narayan Jha to the assembly.

The BJP had assured Sahani of getting re-elected after the expiry of the term of his seat in July this year.

Meanwhile, in Muzaffarpur, local BJP MP Ajay Nishad also sought to twist the knife by claiming that his party will contest in Bochahan assembly seat which has fallen vacant upon the death of MLA Musafir Paswan, who belonged to the VIP.

The statement by Nishad came in the backdrop of Mukesh Sahani's threat of jumping ship if the NDA would not back his candidate when the bypoll would be held for the assembly segment.

Notably, the VIP had won four seats in the 2020 assembly polls and all its MLAs are said to have formerly been associated with the BJP.

Mukesh Sahani had been with the RJD-led Grand Alliance since the formation of his party four years ago. He was brought into the NDA after a meeting with Union Home Minister Amit Shah soon after he made a dramatic exit from the Grand Alliance in protest against Tejashwi Yadav's reluctance to give a “respectable” share of seats.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)