NEW DELHI: The ruling BJP-led NDA is currently ahead in 202 seats, while the opposition, the Mahagathbandhan, is leading in 35 seats.
The ruling BJP-led NDA, which includes Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s JDU, is headed for a landslide win in Bihar, sending the Opposition into a tailspin. The NDA has crossed the majority mark with 208 seats in the 243-member Assembly.
Election Commission data shows the BJP currently ahead in 96 seats in the 243-member Bihar assembly, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s JDU in 85, Union Minister Chirag Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) in 20, Union Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi’s Hindustani Awam Morcha in four, and Rajya Sabha MP Upendra Kushwaha’s Rashtriya Lok Morcha in four.
The Opposition Mahagathbandhan is ahead in just 27 seats, with Tejashwi Yadav’s RJD on 23, the Congress, the CPM and CPI(ML)(L) on one seat each.
Poll strategist Prashant Kishor’s Jan Suraaj Party, considered the X factor in this election, has completely collapsed. The dark horse turned out to be Lok Sabha MP Asaduddin Owaisi’s AIMIM, which is currently ahead on six seats, powered by Muslim votes from Seemanchal.
Tejashwi Yadav, the chief ministerial candidate of the Mahagathbandhan, is locked in a tough combat in his family bastion Raghopur – a contest that was seen as a cakewalk for him. He has been representing the constituency in the state assembly since 2015.
The 25-year-old singer Maithili Thakur, who is making her poll debut on a BJP ticket, is leading in Alinagar. Tejashwi’s estranged brother, Tej Pratap Yadav, who formed a new party — Janshakti Janta Dal — before the elections, is trailing by more than 12,000 votes.
The defeat of the Grand alliance is expected to be a shock to it in more ways than one. In 2020, the RJD had won 75 seats and emerged as the single largest party. The Congress too, won 19 seats, which while meagre in comparison had pushed up the Opposition’s total.
The Opposition’s score – falling short of the majority mark by only 12 — had given it an extra heft in the state and brought hopes of a victory, even if a slim one, this time around. Instead it finds itself with a score that would not even allow it to get the position of the Leader of the Opposition in the state assembly.
For the BJP, the trajectory remains on the course set in 2020, when beating the odds, it had won more seats than Nitish Kumar’s JDU and assuming a dominating role in the alliance for the first time.
While both parties contested 101 seats this time and the JDU hugely improved on its 2020 score of 43, it is still trailing the BJP by about 10 seats.
The NDA’s steller performance is being considered as much a result of the huge participation by women voters. The entry of Prashant Kishor’s Jan Suraj Party was expected to cut into the non-NDA votes, but data shows it has polled fewer votes than NOTA (None Of The Above Option).
