Nitish Kumar (left) Lalu Prasad Yadav and Rabri Devi, and Tejashwi Yadav (R) show their fingers marked with indelible ink after casting votes.
Credit: PTI Photo
Voting across 122 Assembly seats in 20 districts in the second phase of Bihar elections has come to an end on Tuesday.
With the conclusion of the high-stakes election in the 243-seat Assembly, results are set to be out on November 14.
The first phase was held on November 6 and saw a record voter turnout of about 65 per cent voter.
It is a two-way battle between the incumbent NDA comprising the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Janata Dal (United) along with other parties, and the opposing Mahaghatbandhan of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Congress.
Giving the two alliances face a competition in Prashant Kishor's newly formed Jan Suraaj.
While Nitish Kumar will continue to be the Chief Ministerial face for the NDA, the I.N.D.I.A. bloc announced that Tejashwi Yadav will be at the helm if they win.
Bihar polls: What happened in 2020?
In 2020, Lalu Yadav's RJD emerged as the single-largest party with 75 seats, while the BJP won in 74 constituencies. However, Nitish Kumar, whose JD(U) had secured 43 seats, eventually supported the BJP to form the government.
Nitish took a U-turn in 2022 when he briefly parted ways with BJP and aligned with RJD to return as the chief minister, before rejoining NDA and retaining the top position in 2024.
The counting on November 14 will reveal if Nitish Kumar gets a record 10th term or whether Tejashwi Yadav brings in a change in Bihar politics.