Bihar Verdict: NDA crosses majority mark

The Election Commission of India Tuesday(November 10) said that the significant ground is yet to be covered as only one crore of the total 4.10 crore votes have been counted so far and the final result is expected to come by late tonight.

The Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Bihar, HR Srinivas said that earlier there used to be 25-26 rounds of counting, but this time it went up to around 35 rounds which can extend the counting till late evening.

The current trend is NDA -128, MGB- 105, OTH- 10. BJP now has 73 seats , JD(U)- 48, HAM -1, VIP-6, RJD- 66, CONG- 21, CPI-ML -11, CPM- 4, CPI-3, LJP -2, AIMM-2 , BSP-2 , RLSP-0.

The final picture in Bihar will take sometime, with counting slow due to coronavirus precautions.

However the latest trends show the NDA is ahead of the RJD-led Mahagathbandhan, crossing the half-way mark of 122 seats needed to secure majority in Bihar Assembly.

The BJP that remained a junior partner in the NDA in Bihar so far is going to end up having the upper hand. It is too soon to say whether the NDA forms the government or not, the BJP has succeeded in overtaking Nithish Kumar, who had love-hate relationship with Narendra Modi, as the face of the alliance.

Another significant turn of events in the election is the improvement in tally of Chirag Paswan’s Lok Janshakthi Party and is leading on more number of seats than last time.

Earlier the BJP had declared the Nitish would be CM if the alliance won, irrespective of who gets more seats. How LJD look at this generosity one has to wait and see.

The fate of the Nitish-led JD(U) government, which has helmed Bihar for a decade and a half, will be decided on Tuesday as election results to the 243-member legislative assembly will be declared. Besides, the fate of 3,558 candidates, including 370 women and a transgender, will also be decided. The counting of votes began at 8 am at 55 centres across 38 districts.

The results will decide if the voters have decided to hand over the state’s baton to the Grand alliance (Mahagathbandhan) led by its CM candidate Tejashwi Yadav, which constitutes the RJD, the Congress and Left parties.