Patna / Chennai: NDA was ahead of the opposition’s grand alliance – led by Tejashwi Yadav – hours after the counting of votes began across 38 districts in Bihar.
In early leads, Tejashwi Yadav was surging ahead; however, reports later said that Nitish Kumar was likely to be voted to power for a fourth straight term.
NDA went past the half-way mark and the BJP emerged as the single largest party, according to the projections. Despite ruling the State for a decade and a half, Nitish Kumar’s JDU is leading in fewer seats as compared to ally BJP.
Of 243 seats, the JDU contested 122 seats, while the BJP contested 121 seats. Counting of votes began this morning amid strict restrictions to check the spread of coronavirus. Nitish Kumar’s ex-ally Chirag Paswan, who chose to go solo this time, is another young leader on the frontline in the State apart from Tejashwi Yadav, former Chief Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav’s son.
The JDU today said the ruling party has been ‘hurt’ by Chirag Paswan’s stinging comments amid the campaign heat after he parted ways. Over the last few weeks, a fierce campaign saw Prime Minister Narendra Modi – the NDA’S de-facto face- seeking votes for Nitish Kumar. The BJP-JDU combine has been targeted by opposition over issues such as unemployment and the handling of the pandemic.
As he shared stage with Nitish Kumar during election rallies, Modi spoke of ‘jungle-raj’ under RJD’s Lalu Prasad Yadav before Nitish Kumar took over as the Chief Minister, suggesting that voting for Tejashwi Yadav will push the State into anarchy, again.
Tejashwi Yadav, on the other hand, made a big poll promise of 10 lakh jobs. While the BJP attacked Tejashwi Yadav over the issue, the party’s manifesto also made a mention of 19 lakh jobs, apart from ‘free Covid vaccine’ – which gave more ammunition to the opposition.
Many opposition leaders alleged that the ruling party is using pandemic to get votes.
By-poll trends
As far as the bypolls were concerned the BJP was leading in 40 out of 58 seats across 11 States.Ā The BJP was leading in both Dumka and Bermo assembly by-polls in Jharkhand, according to early trends.
BJP was leading in 17 seats and the Congress in nine in Madhya Pradesh. The 28 seats in Madhya Pradesh fell vacant following Jyotiraditya Scindia’s crossover in March, which triggered the fall of the Kamal Nath government.
In Gujarat, the party was leading in all 8 seats. In Uttar Pradesh By-elections, BJP was leading in five seats, Samajwadi Party and an Independent candidate leading on one each.