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ISSUES '98
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State:	Bihar
Constituency:	Bettiah
Total Votes Polled:	631754
Winner: BJP	Madan Prasad Jaiswal	315899
Runner Up: JD	Nasim Ahmad	264410
Margin: 51489 (8.24%)

The Congress's share of votes in the 1996 election: just 3.19 pc. In the previous elections, which the Janata Dal had won, the BJP had come a close second, and by 1996 it had managed to overhaul Laloo's outfit.