PATNA, Nov 11 : The grand victory of the Mahagathbandhan (grand alliance) of Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad in the crucial Bihar poll was possible not because of Kumar's celebrity publicity manager Prashant Kishor, but because of Prasad's M-Y(Muslim-Yadav) vote bank which proved the real game changer, according to political analysts. The RJD of Prasad won more seats than JD(U) of Kumar.
Of the total 49 Yadav candidates that the RJD fielded, 42 won the poll while 12 out of the 16 Muslim candidates bagged the seats.
Similarly, out of the total 13 Yadav candidates the JD(U) had fielded, 11 won the poll while out of seven Muslim contestants, five registered wins.
Even for the Congress, out of the three Yadav candidates, two won the poll and out of 10 Muslim candidates, six bagged the seats.
The RJD's Yadav candidates had a whopping 85.71 strike rate whereas Muslim candidates notched up 75% strike rate for the party. For the JD(U), the strike rate of Yadav candidates was 84.61 % while Muslim contestants had 71.42% strike rate.
However, for their third alliance partner, the Congress party, the strike rate of Yadavs was 66.66% while for the Muslims it was 60%.
The political analysts told The Hindu that such an impressive M-Y strike rate had lifted the vote-share of the grand alliance to an extent that no other factor could affect the outcome.      ?THE HINDU