NDA celebrates with firecrackers, RJD headquarters in silence

As the Bihar Election Results 2025 rolled in on Friday Patnarsquos Veerchand Patel Marg reflected two contrasting moodsAt one end BJP and JDU offices buzzed like festival grounds filled with drums firecrackers and the aroma of fresh laddoos At the other end RJD headquarters wore a heavy silence with long faces whispered conversations and disbelief growing with every update from the Election CommissionWith the NDA heading toward a decisive victory the BJP headquarters erupted into celebration Workers surged past the iron gates some cycling in from the old city others spilling out of autorickshaws brimming with fluttering party flags turning the street into a festive spectacleThe party offices courtyard changed colours with every firecracker orange from the saffron smoke grey from the debris and red from the gulal smeared on jubilant facesWorkers wearing Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar masks held their position at the entrance breaking into impromptu jigs each time the BJP tally flickered upward on the large LED screen fixed above the porchModi ka Parivar they roared in unison waving miniature cutouts of the PMClose by women workers in saffron saris punched the air with scarves chanting Bharat Mata ki Jai Narendra Modi zindabad Nitish Kumar zindabad The drumbeats were relentless threatening to drown out even the fireworksWith onesided leads the NDA appears invincible The public has rejected the politics of lies loot and illusion shouted a woman worker from Purnea raising her voice above the crescendoA young man perched precariously on a guardrail added Bihar is once again with the NDA this is the verdict against the ThugbandhanInside senior leaders exchanged restrained smiles cautious but widening steadily as the BJP shot past the 90seat mark of the 101 it contestedWorkers distributed laddoos declaring the party on course for its biggestever assembly tally in Bihar burying the ghost of its Lok Sabha dip last yearA few hundred metres away the JDU office was exploding in its own shade of euphoria greenAs the EC trends nudged the party to an 82seat lead the compound erupted with rolling dhols green gulal clouds and crackersA giant poster of Kumar was hoisted above the crowd its edges snapping sharply in the November breezeNitish ji ki paanchvi jeet likhi ja chuki hai ab sirf formalities baaki hain Nitish jis fifth victory is already written only the formalities remain now a worker shouted into a TV cameraElderly loyalists sat under a tarpaulin canopy clapping gently to a lone dholakFrom 2005 till today people know who actually governs and who only makes noise Ramesh Yadav from Nalanda told a news channel claiming he had attended every Nitish victory celebration since the JDU leaders debut winA volunteer dressed as Vikas Purush posed for cameras with cardboard cutouts of roads irrigation canals and welfare schemes pasted onto his kurtaA youth group marched past with a giant green thermocol arrow the JDU symbol chanting Teer chalega Bihar badegaSteaming buckets of jalebis disappeared before they could be placed on tables even policemen stationed at the gate smiled wryly as green gulal settled on their uniformsPaanchvi jeet ka josh alag hi hota hai The excitement of a fifth win has a different energy altogether one of them remarkedBut just across the road within full view of the celebrations the RJD office lived an altogether different morningFaces turned grim as early trends strengthened into what looked like a routThe RJD which had entered the campaign confident of repeating its singlelargest status from 2020 found itself gasping for relevance by noonWe are very disappointed said Nishant Yadav former Patna University Students Union vice president We wanted to give Tejashwi Yadav a chance But the trends are not in our favourOutside the gate a group of women sang selfwritten songs referencing Mai Bahan Yojana one of the RJD leaders key promisesOne of them sighed Victory and defeat are two sides of the same coin Sometimes students prepare well but write the exam badlyMeanwhile at the BJP office celebrations reached their theatrical peak when actor Phool Singh wearing a saffron jacket and a framed Modi locket arrived atop a Vijay RathWherever Modi ji wins my chariot will go Bihar today Jharkhand tomorrow he declaredAdding a crossstate flavour AIADMK workers from Tamil Nadu clad in dual BJPAIADMK scarves posed for photosWe came here to celebrate NDAs success Bihar like Tamil Nadu is rejecting dynastic politics said K ShanmugarajaBy afternoon Veerchand Patel Path had turned into a splitscreen of Bihars political churn saffronandgreen ecstasy on one side redandwhite gloom on the otherEvery firecracker every drumbeat and every chant told the same story as the NDA marched toward a comfortable majority Patnas streets echoed the soundscape of a state choosing continuity over changeWith PTI inputs