Patna, November 24 2010: The Nitish Kumar led JD(U)-BJP alliance on Wednesday recorded three-fourth victory in the Bihar elections, bagging 207 of the 243 Assembly seats.

RJD-LJP got 24, Congress managed just four while others got eight.

Smashing opposition to smithereens, the NDA partners improved their performance considerably compared to the last elections in 2005, when they together won 143 seats.

The RJD-LJP alliance steered by Lalu Prasad and Ram Vilas Paswan ate humble pie and secured just 24 seats.

They had 64 seats last time.

To add to RJD's humiliation, former chief minister and Prasad's wife Rabri Devi lost at Sonepur in Saran district to nearest BJP rival and was trailing in Raghopur.

The Congress suffered a major electoral setback as it won only four seats compared to the nine seats it held in 2005 .

The CPI won one seat.

Reacting to the people's verdict, Kumar said, "We have no magic wand, but people's trust.

I will need to work harder than I did in the last five years and I will not hesitate to do it.

"The outcome of the elections also proves beyond doubt that it was a victory for development and for the people of the state" .

The poll verdict, he said, would disappoint those doing politics on the basis of caste and the outcome would mark a "new story" in Bihar and have effect outside the state.

"The trends are positive and reflects that those making false claims or promises will face the music," he said.

Without naming RJD chief Lalu Prasad who had criticised the exit polls predicting victory for the NDA, Kumar said, "Media should not be criticised for its projection that NDA will pull off a landslide victory in Bihar.

"People should refrain from unnecessary criticism of the media ....

if you live up to the people's aspirations and expectations you will definitely be rewarded," Kumar said.

"Now I feel that the people have thrust on my shoulder more responsibilities and I have to continue to make efforts with full dedication" .

Describing its poor showing in Bihar as not surprising, Congress on Wednesday said it will have to start from the scratch in the state while the RJD said it was baffled by the poll results.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi, who congratulated Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar on the landslide victory of the JD(U)-BJP combine, candidly admitted that her party was not expecting to make big inroads in the Bihar assembly polls.

"As far as our party is concerned, we did not have much hope.

We took a deliberate decision not to work in alliance with other parties.

Results obviously indicate that our party has to start from the scratch to rebuild itself and that is what we plan to do," Gandhi told reporters at her 10, Jan-path residence while reacting to the Bihar poll results.

Congress spokesperson Manish Tewary said, "We had decided to go alone to rebuild our party in the state.

It was a difficult decision when we decided to go alone.

By going alone the base which we had lost we would try to regain that" .

Hoping that Congress will stage a comeback in the state he said, "Ultimately the position we have taken will stand vindicated (one day)." RJD supremo Lalu Prasad said he accepted the defeat with humility.

"I congratulate Nitish Kumar not the BJP for the success story...

though we accept the people's mandate with humility, we will soon undertake a thorough review what led to such astonishing results," Prasad told reporters in Patna.

He said "now when people have reposed faith in Nitish Kumar, they will like to see that the promises made by Kumar be completed in a time-bound manner." The CPI(M) said it was disappointed by the poll results.

"Our number of seats have gone down in Bihar assembly...

naturally we are disappointed," CPI(M) leader Brinda Karat told reporters outside Parliament.

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