Patna: The ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has crossed the halfway mark of 122, while the Opposition’s Mahagathbandhan is trailing behind as per the Election Commission of India.
According to the leads on 229 seats, the NDA was leading at 167 seats, with the Bharatiya Janata Party’s lead on 71 seats and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar-led Janata Dal (United) ahead in 72 constituencies. Chirag Paswan’s LJP(RV) was leading on 18 seats.
The BJP and the JD(U) have maintained a high conversion rate of 67 per cent and 64 per cent, respectively.
Mahagathbandhan was trailing behind, with a lead of just 60 seats. While Tejashwi Yadav’s Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) was leading on 43 seats, its allies showed an underwhelming performance as per the early trends. Congress was leading on 8 seats, while the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation was leading on six seats.
Meanwhile, AIMIM is ahead in two seats.
Among prominent faces, Deputy CMs Vijay Kumar Sinha and Samrat Choudhary were leading on the Lakhisarai and Tarapur seats, respectively. BJP’s Mangal Pandey was leading in Siwan, while Mahagathbandhan’s CM face Tejashwi Yadav was ahead in Raghopur.
Counting of votes for all 243 constituencies began at 8 am amid tight security. Officials began tallying postal ballots, with the counting of EVM votes scheduled to start at 8:30 am.
Elaborate security arrangements are in place, with 4,372 counting tables and over 18,000 counting agents overseeing the process. Most exit polls predict a comfortable victory for the NDA, with some projecting the Mahagathbandhan to win.
According to the ECI’s official press note, 2,616 candidates and 12 recognised political parties participated in the two-phase polls on November 6 and 11, and none requested repolling in any constituency.
The main election contest in the Bihar elections is between the National Democratic Alliance, led by CM Nitish Kumar and Tejashwi Yadav’s Mahagathbandhan. In the 2020 election, the NDA secured a majority in the assembly and won 125 seats, with Nitish Kumar again taking oath as Chief Minister.
