By Admin 
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s son Nishant Kumar on Thursday (November 20) thanked the people of the state for the “historic mandate” and credited women voters in particular for their “special participation”, but dodged questions related to his political debut.
His father took oath as Chief Minister for the record 10th time on Thursday (20 November). In a brief conversation with journalists including ‘PTI Video’ at the swearing-in ceremony held at Gandhi Maidan, Nishant said, “Salute and best wishes to the people of Bihar. I thank and congratulate from the bottom of my heart. The way people worked, the way women voted, their special participation is very important for Bihar.”
What did Nishant say on the question of coming into politics?
During this time, when he was asked when he would enter politics, Nishant smiled and left from there. Nishant has never contested any election and unlike the heirs of many political families, he has so far stayed away from public life. Nishant’s political debut was also discussed a lot in this election.
His father and Janata Dal United (JDU) chief Nitish Kumar took oath as the Chief Minister of Bihar for the 10th time. Nitish held the reins of Bihar for almost two decades and has created a special women vote bank.
BJP made a strong comeback in the elections
The National Democratic Alliance (NDA), an alliance of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), JDU, LJP (Ram Vilas) and two other parties, returned to power by winning 202 seats in the 243-member assembly.
BJP emerged as the largest party with 89 seats. After this, JDU got 85 seats, while LJP (Ram Vilas) got 19, Hindustani Awami Morcha got five and Rashtriya Lok Morcha (RLMO) got four seats.
Women voted enthusiastically
According to Election Commission data, women voted more than men. The voting percentage of women was more than 71 percent, while among men it was 62.9 percent. In seven districts, women voted 14 percentage points more and in 10 other districts this difference was more than 10 points. National Democratic Alliance (NDA) leaders cited this as the reason for the alliance’s decisive advance.
Senior NDA officials attributed the “women mandate” to Nitish’s welfare rule. This included everything from the 2016 prohibition policy (which received widespread support from women affected by alcohol-induced domestic violence) to large-scale economic assistance schemes given before the elections.
The previous NDA government had given Rs 10,000 each to over 1.21 crore ‘Jeevika Didis’ to start micro businesses and had promised additional assistance of up to Rs 2 lakh for their ventures.
Benefit from ‘Jeevika Didi’ project
The government was running the World Bank-assisted project ‘JEEVIKA’ through an autonomous body, Bihar Rural Livelihood Promotion Society (BRLPS), which aims at social and economic empowerment of the rural poor. The women associated with this project are called ‘Jeevika Didi’.
In a state that often grapples with caste divisions, JDU leaders said women had emerged as a voter category that overcame many obstacles. They became the demographic group that reshaped the election results and strengthened the foundation for Nitish Kumar’s return to power.