Bihar Assembly Elections 2025: ‘Tiger Zinda Hai’ posters emerge for Nitish Kumar ahead of counting; Tejashwi Yadav shows cautious optimism

Laddoos, flowers ordered by both camps as all eyes on November 14 verdict

Patna: ‘Tiger Zinda Hai’, says a poster outside the Janata Dal (United) office on Beer Chand Patel Marg in Patna, which is buzzing with enthusiasm. And it has reasons to be upbeat about the JD(U) strongman Nitish Kumar who appeared “weak and ill” prior to polls but showed amazing resilience as the elections progressed.

All the exit polls in the country have predicted a massive fifth consecutive term for the Nitish-led government.

However, on the same street is the RJD office, where supporters of Tejashwi Yadav, the Mahagathbandhan Chief Ministerial candidate, are showing cautious optimism. “We go by the exact poll, not exit poll,” said Priyanka Bharti, the RJD spokesperson, asking each and every member of her party to remain guarded at the counting centres till the last vote is counted. “This time, no vote theft will be allowed,” she adds.

Incidentally, both the NDA and the I.N.D.I.A. bloc have ordered hundreds of kgs of laddoos and flowers/bouquets.

Counting time

On November 14, the counting of votes for the 243 Assembly constituencies will start at all the 46 counting centres in the state at 8 am. The postal ballots will be counted initially, followed by the EVMs from 8.30 am onwards. “The leads will be available from 10 am onwards and the first result could be expected by 12 noon,” said a senior official of the district administration.

Fierce fight

The NDA and the I.N.D.I.A. bloc are engaged in a straight and fierce contest for the second consecutive election. However, the exit polls have predicted a clear majority to massive majority for the Nitish-led NDA. Opposition leader Tejashwi has, however, dismissed the exit polls arguing that the survey findings were made public even when the voters were in queue to exercise their franchise.

“The exit polls predictions are primarily aimed to influence the officers engaged in conducting elections,” said Tejashwi, arguing that the record turnout of the voters indicated a vote for change.

The Mahagathbandhan, the Hindi term for I.N.D.I.A. bloc, contested the polls in alliance with the Congress, CPI-ML, CPI, CPM and the VIP, while the NDA is a close-knit umbrella of the JD(U), BJP, LJP, HAM and the RLM.

On Friday, all eyes will be on Raghopur and Tarapur from where Tejashwi Yadav and Samrat Choudhary, BJP’s Deputy Chief Minister, are contesting respectively. Notably, neither the present CM Nitish Kumar, nor the former CMs Lalu Prasad and Rabri Devi have contested the Assembly elections for different reasons. While Nitish and Rabri are already an MLC, Lalu has been debarred from contesting any election following his conviction in the fodder scam.