Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar greets supporters after victory in Bihar state elections in Patna, India, on Sunday.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi‘s ruling Hindu nationalist party bit the dust in the bitterly fought Bihar elections.

As the Nitish Kumar-Lalu Prasad duo led the Grand Alliance on Sunday to a historic, thumping two-thirds majority, even reviving its junior partner, the Congress, the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance was shown the door. The Janata Dal (U)-RJD–Congress alliance secured 178 seats in the 243-member House. RJD emerged the leader of the pack with 80 seats while JD(U) bagged 71. Both the parties had contested 101 seats each. Congress also made impressive gains winning 27 seats out of 41. It had won only 4 last time.

Congress leader Shashi Tharoor said the secular alliance’s poll message was peace, in contrast to the BJP’s communally-charged polarizing tactics and rhetoric that attempted to take divisiveness to new heights and split the vote on religious lines.

Prominent columnist Rana Ayyub said that Modi, without any pretence of diplomacy, auctioned financial packages in his rallies and targeted infamously the DNA of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. It is from here that the BJP started to make a steady decline.

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