NDA widens lead; Mahagathbandhan continues to trail in Bihar

The Nitish Kumar-led NDA widened its lead in the Bihar Assembly election 2020, while the Mahagathbandhan continued to trail.

As of 16:20 pm, the NDA was leading in 132 seats compared to the Grand Alliance, which was maintaining leads in 101 constituencies. Meanwhile, the BJP emerged as the single largest party, which was leading in 73 seats. It seemed to have expanded its reach compared to last Assembly elections, where it won 53 seats.

The JD(U) on Tuesday exuded confidence that the NDA will again form a government in Bihar under Chief Minister Nitish Kumar as trends showed the political alliance marching ahead of the RJD-led Grand Alliance.

Though the Nitish Kumar-led alliance has crossed the halfway mark, it wasn't before a tough fight from the Mahagathbandhan.

Follow live updates on the Bihar counting day here

Reacting to the early trend, JD(U) leader K C Tyagi said that the NDA was losing only due to Covid-19 impact. “A year ago, RJD couldn't win a single seat in Lok Sabha polls. As per Lok Sabha results, JD(U) and allies were to win over 200 seats. In last one year, nothing has harmed brand Nitish or added to brand RJD, we are losing only due to Covid-19 impact,” said Tyagi.

At 11:14 am, the NDA was leading in 130 seats, while the Grand Alliance was ahead in 102 seats.

A close battle was on between the Mahagathbandhan and the NDA in the Bihar Assembly elections. At 9:55 am, Tejashwi Yadav-led alliance was ahead in 114 seats, while Nitish NDA was closely trailing with leads in 110 seats.

Most of the exit polls have predicted that Bihar might be on the cusp of a major generational shift in politics, with most pollsters predicting victory for the Grand Alliance led by young RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav.

The counting of votes of the Bihar election began at 8 am in 55 polling stations across 38 districts as per the Election Commission's Covid-19 guidelines.

The state, which has 243 assembly constituencies, recorded 57.05 per cent turnout in the assembly elections this time, marginally higher than that of 2015 despite the Covid-19 pandemic, as per official data.

Owing to the restrictions due to Covid-19, the Election Commission of India extended the polling stations. The poll panel said it has set up a total of 55 counting centres, housing 414 halls, spread across all the 38 districts of the state that voted in three phases on October 28, November 3 and November 7.