Bihar polls: Congress confident of win despite NDA's initial lead

As NDA leads in Bihar polls, Congress leaders dismiss initial trends, express confidence in a Mahagathbandhan victory, and allege deletion of opposition voters. ECI data shows NDA crossing the halfway mark, with counting underway.

Congress Downplays Early Trends, Alleges Foul Play

As the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) leads in the Bihar assembly elections, Congress leader Akhilesh Prasad Singh on Friday advised that it was not "appropriate" to react to initial trends.

Speaking to ANI, Singh said that the results will be in favour of the Mahagathbandhan. "As much as I have seen during the campaigning, there needs to be a change in Bihar. It is not appropriate to react to the initial trends. I am confident that the results will be in favour of the Mahagathbandhan," the Congress leader said.

Congress MP Manickam Tagore today alleged that vote deletion happened for voters who support the opposition, saying that democracy can't survive if the playing field is uneven. "When you delete 65 lakh voters--mostly from the opposition's voters --what do you expect on result day? Democracy cannot survive if the playing field is tilted before the match even begins," Tagore posted on X.

NDA Crosses Halfway Mark in Early Leads

The ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has crossed the halfway mark of 122, while the Opposition's Mahagathbandhan is trailing behind as per the Election Commission of India.

According to the leads on 229 seats, the NDA was leading at 167 seats, with the Bharatiya Janata Party's lead on 71 seats and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar-led Janata Dal (United) ahead in 72 constituencies. Chirag Paswan's LJP(RV) was leading on 18 seats. The BJP and the JD(U) have maintained a high conversion rate of 67% and 64%, respectively.

Mahagathbandhan was trailing behind, with a lead of just 60 seats. While Tejashwi Yadav's Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) was leading on 43 seats, its allies showed an underwhelming performance as per the early trends. Congress was leading in 8 seats, while the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation was leading in 6 seats.

Key Candidates Leading

Meanwhile, AIMIM is ahead in two seats. Among prominent faces, Deputy CMs Vijay Kumar Sinha and Samrat Choudhary were leading on the Lakhisarai and Tarapur seats, respectively. BJP's Mangal Pandey was leading in Siwan, while Mahagathbandhan's CM face Tejashwi Yadav was ahead in Raghopur.

Vote Counting Underway

Counting of votes for all 243 constituencies began at 8 am amid tight security. Officials began tallying postal ballots, with the counting of EVM votes scheduled to start at 8:30 am. Elaborate security arrangements are in place, with 4,372 counting tables and over 18,000 counting agents overseeing the process.

Most exit polls predict a comfortable victory for the NDA, with some projecting the Mahagathbandhan to win.

Election Background and Political Shifts

According to the ECI's official press note, 2,616 candidates and 12 recognised political parties participated in the two-phase polls on November 6 and 11, and none requested repolling in any constituency.

The main election contest in the Bihar elections is between the National Democratic Alliance, led by CM Nitish Kumar and Tejashwi Yadav's Mahagathbandhan.

In the 2020 election, the NDA secured a majority in the assembly and won 125 seats, with Nitish Kumar again taking oath as Chief Minister. However, in August 2022, Nitish Kumar broke the alliance with the BJP and resigned as Chief Minister, forming a government with the RJD-Congress-led Mahagathbandhan. He had emerged as a key figure in the formation of the combined opposition INDIA bloc. However, Kumar's romance with the RJD lasted for less than two years, and in January 2024, ahead of the parliamentary polls, Kumar returned to the NDA.

Party Performance in Past Polls

BJP improved its position between the 2015 and 2020 polls. It won 53 of 157 seats it contested in 2015 and 74 of 110 seats in 2020.

The Rashtriya Janata Dal has also shown a strong performance, having won 80 of the 101 seats it contested in 2015 and 75 of the 144 seats it put up candidates in during the 2020 polls.

JD(U) saw a dip in its performance in the last two polls. It won 71 seats of 101 it contested in 2015 and 43 of 115 in 2020. Congress also saw a decline in performance from 27 seats it won in 2015 to 19 in 2020. (ANI)

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Asianet Newsable English staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)