After about three hours of counting, initial trends show that the NDA alliance has surged past the opposition Mahagathbandhan alliance of Rashtriya Janata Dal, the Congress and other affiliate parties, moving above the half-way mark in a closely-contested electoral battle.
With electoral trends firming up as counting advances, NDA alliance is so far leading on 127 seats of the 243-ASsembly seats in Bihar. On the other hand, the Mahagathbandhan alliance is leading on 101 seats.
https://twitter.com/TimesNow/status/1326035751100846081?ref_src=twsrc%5EtfwThe majority mark in the 243-seat Bihar assembly is 122 and with the current trends NDA alliance seems poised to retain power in the state.
It is also pertinent to note that Lok Janshakti Party(LJP) is leading 5 seats and Other parties have secured a lead on 9 seats.
Though LJP has fought the elections separately, they are more likely to extend their support to the NDA alliance than the Mahagathbandhan since they are a former alliance partner and are already in an alliance with the NDA at the centre.
The emerging electoral results are in sharp contrast to the several exit polls which suggested a close fight between the Mahagathbandhan and NDA alliance, with the balance tilting in the favour of the Mahagathbandhan alliance. Some of the exit polls also suggested a landslide victory to the Mahagathbandhan alliance and a complete rout of the BJP-JDU’s NDA alliance, which is clearly not the case here.
Close margins in dozens of seats
Several seats are showing leads by a very close margin. As per reports, there are 23 seats where the leading margin is less than 500. Tejashwi Yadav himself is leading in Raghopur by a mere 400 votes against BJP’s Satish Kumar. 27 more seats have a leading margin of fewer than 1000 votes. As the counting enters the 9th phase, NDA workers have already started celebrations.