As the BJP-led NDA inched closer to a landslide victory in Bihar, Haryana Minister Anil Vij on Friday said the big message from the election is that “people want development”.

“The Bihar election has sent out a very big message to the entire country that the people do not want fake promises; they want real work and development,” the transport and energy minister said.

He claimed that the people of Bihar have accepted the development-driven policies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Speaking to reporters in Ambala, Vij said in the Bihar election, the strategy of Union Home Minister Amit Shah, whom he described as “the Chanakya of this era”, played a significant role.

Likewise, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who has a “clean image”, was once again accepted by the people, he said. The BJP-led NDA was opening up impressive leads in more than 180 of the state’s 243 assembly seats, with early trends also indicating that the saffron party was on track to post its biggest tally with an excellent strike rate.

This likely victory comes in the backdrop of the BJP’s back-to-back wins over the past year in Delhi, Maharashtra, and Haryana, following the significant setback it faced in the Lok Sabha elections last year.