With the Bihar Lok Sabha by-poll outcome exposing the chinks in the United Progressive Alliance, the Congress on Thursday sought to blame the Rashtriya Janata Dal for the loss of the Bhagalpur seat.
"Had RJD chief Lalu Prasad listened to us, things would have been different in Bhagalpur," All India Congress Committee general secretary Digvijay Singh said.
Put together, the RJD nominee and the Communist Party of India-Marxist candidate won more votes than the National Democratic Alliance candidate, Shahnawaz Hussain, of the Bharatiya Janata Party, who emerged victorious.
At the same time, Singh said the UPA has not lost anything in the by-elections as both Bhagalpur and Nalanda seats belonged to the NDA.
While Hussain polled 2,21,001 votes, his RJD rival, a former MP from neighbouring Munger, secured 1,65,390 votes. CPI-M's Subodh Roy, backed by Ram Vilas Paswan's Lok Janshakti Party, the Congress, the Nationalist Congress Party and the Communist Party of India, was pushed to third position with 79,363 votes.
