New Delhi: With very early counting trends of the Bihar assembly elections indicating a setback for the Janata Dal (United), party general secretary K.C. Tyagi nearly conceded defeated in the polls.The senior party leader told NDTV, “We welcome the people’s decision.” Then he added, “We were not defeated by the RJD (Rashtriya Janata Dal) but the nature’s curse (the effects of COVID-19).”“We are trailing only because of COVID-19. The migrant crisis thrown up by the pandemic was not only our fault to be blamed for. We are paying for past 70 years of bad policies and deterioration in Bihar,” he said.Also read: Bihar Election Results Live: Early Trends Show NDA in the LeadInterestingly, soon after Tyagi’s comment went on air, party leader Sanjay Singh stepped out of chief minister Nitish Kumar’s official residence to meet the media and stated, “The NDA is forming the government, there is no doubt about it. Nitish Kumar will once again be the chief minister of an NDA government in Bihar. Like I said in the last elections, that Mahagatbandhan (the grand alliance) will form the government (inspite of BJP’s initial celebrations expecting a win), this time too I am predicting a win.”Later, with newer trends showing the fight between the NDA and the Mahagatbandhan of opposition parties narrowing and the NDA slightly ahead, Tyagi played down his earlier comment and told the news channel, “It is the win of corona.” On being asked whether the BJP would agree to make JD(U) leader Nitish Kumar the chief minister once again, he reminded the viewers that both BJP president J.P. Nadda and Prime Minister Narendra Modi had already stated that the next NDA government in Bihar would be formed under Nitish’s leadership.