3.40 crore votes have been counted till 8 pm, around 4.10 crore votes were cast in Bihar Election: EC
The NDA maintained an edge over the RJD-led Grand Alliance as counting progressed slowly in Bihar. With more than two third of the votes still to be counted, and the margin of lead being less than 1,000 in about a score of seats, the game is still wide open.
FollowEven as the Election Commission stated that counting of votes for the Bihar Assembly elections will continue till late in the night, the trends available so far suggested that the Opposition alliance—Mahagathbandan (Grand Alliance)—has narrowed the gap against the ruling NDA alliance.
As per the latest data, the NDA alliance is leading in 120 seats as opposed to the Grand Alliance, which is ahead in 115 seats. The majority mark in the 243-member Bihar Assembly is 122.
Results have been declared for 74 out of 243 seats. Of the results declared so far the BJP has 22, RJD 20, JD(U) 13, Congress 7, CPI(M-L) 5, VIP 2 and AIMIM, CPI, CPI(M), HAM(S) and Independent 1 each.
“3.40 crore votes have been counted till 8 pm. Around 4.10 crore votes were cast in Bihar Election,” said Election Commission of India.
Meanwhile, Union Home Minister Amit Shah Tuesday dialled Chief Minister Nitish Kumar as the two leaders talked about the Bihar poll results and trends, news agency PTI reported quoting its sources. Though the sources refused to divulge the details of their telephonic conversation, they said they discussed the poll results and trends.
On the other hand, NCP chief Sharad Pawar said though the trends of Bihar Assembly election results favour the NDA, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav put up a "gritty" fight. Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself had campaigned for the NDA, he noted.
"The trends so far are in favour of the NDA. I think we did not pay attention to the Bihar election. We (NCP) did not contest because we felt that young leadership in the form of Tejashwi Yadav should come forward," Pawar told reporters. "Tejashwi has put up a gritty fight," he said.
"We did not get desired results in the Bihar election. There are some reasons for it. What I saw in the entire campaign was that prime minister Narendra Modi himself took a lot of interest in the election.
"On one side there was a young, inexperienced person like Tejashwi and on the other side there was a person who was chief minister of Gujarat for several years and is now prime minister for the second term. And there was Nitish Kumar who has also been chief minister for several years," said Pawar.
