Patna: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday vowed to repeat “Jharkhand performance” in Bihar, a day after it put up a spectacular show in the mineral-rich state where the saffron-led alliance was able to get a majority first time in 14 years when this state came into being in 2000. The state assembly polls in Bihar are due later next year.

The BJP is rather miffed at the way it was thrown out of the erstwhile National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government in Bihar midway although the both the ruling Janata Dal (United) and the saffron party had fought the last 2010 state polls together. The BJP was pushed out of the power after the former chief minister Nitish Kumar abruptly broke off his party’s 17-year-old alliance with the saffron ally in June last year, blaming it for promoting its hidden agenda of Hindutva.

“After Jharkhand, our party’s victory rath [chariot] will very soon be overtaking Bihar ... We will form our government in Bihar too,” former deputy chief minister of the BJP Sushil Kumar Modi told the media on Wednesday, unable to hide his glee.

He alleged the JD-U leader Nitish Kumar and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad badly failed in Jharkhand polls in its first major test. “The JD-U and the RJD tried hard to stop our moving juggernaut but they failed miserably. Now our focus is in Bihar and we hope to form our government here too,” Modi claimed.

Another senior BJP leader and Opposition leader in the state assembly Nand Kishore Yadav said the victory in coming polls was just a matter of time as the common masses fed up with the “mis-governance” of the ruling JD-U now earnestly wanted for change. He also sought holding of immediate polls in the state for carrying forwards the development works which he alleged had got stalled post NDA split last year.

“The people of Bihar are now impatient to see the BJP government in Bihar and this change must be brought forthwith,” Yadav said.

“Jharkhand ki jeet hamari hai, aab Bihar ki bari hai (After victory in Jharkhand, our next turn is to capture Bihar,” he vowed.

However, Bihar chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi mocked the BJP’s claim about clinching victory in Bihar. “The BJP won (in Jharkhand) primarily because of division in secular votes as there was no alliance among secular parties but we will not repeat such a mistake during the assembly elections in Bihar next year,” said Manjhi.

The chief minister added that the BJP had always benefited from mistakes committed by the rival parties and ridiculed the BJP’s performance in the neighbouring state saying “the party had pumped in huge money and for publicity and campaign but the people of the two states (Jharkhand and Jammu & Kashmir) were not swayed by the high-profile electioneering and false promises made by the party during the campaigning.”

His predecessor and party’s strategist Kumar too warned the saffron party of “daydreaming” about capturing the next polls in Bihar. “It’s their wishful thinking”, he said.

Observers say the BJP alliance was able to cash in on primarily because of division among the secular parties who fought independently, rather than joining the battle in alliance. Although the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) government was running there with the support of the Congress and the RJD, they went to polls separately as the alliance talks crashed over sharing of seats. Likewise, the JD-U too fielded its own candidates against the RJD there although in Bihar, they are together.

Further, the JD-U leader Kumar took just no interest in Jharkhand polls and campaigned there barely for a day as he himself was very busy with his own “sampark yatra” (contact tour) being undertaken in Bihar. On the other hand, RJD chief Prasad started his campaigned rather late owing to his heath problem which forced him to remain aloof from political activities for long while the Congress did not look ever serious.