Grand Alliance Headed for Clear Majority in Bihar
The counting began at 8 AM on Sunday. Votes are locked in 62,780 EVMs with 14,580 officials on duty for the counting process in Patna and other districts.
The fate of 3450 candidates, including 272 women, will be decided during the day.
The five-phase elections started on October 12 and ended on November 5.
Nitish Kumar's JDU and Lalu Prasad Yadav's RJD each contested 101 of Bihar's 243 seats.
As Bihar awaits for the result, early leads from the Election Commission show the JD(U)-RJD-Congress Grand Alliance ahead of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA)
The confusion over exit polls for the Bihar elections seemed to be continuing over even trends in counting, with different television channels showing different coalitions as being ahead
The JDU party workers hopes the grand coalition wins.In Janata Dal(United) office here is a floor to roof poster of the Bihar Chief Minister, with the words Aaage badhta rahe Bihar, phir ek bar Nitish Kumar [If Bihar is to continue moving forward, once more Nitish Kumar] emblazoned across it.
At 11 am, Rajya Sabha TV showed the Grand Alliance ahead in 145 seats as against 88 for the BJP-led alliance in the 243-member assembly. NDTV showed the JD(U)-led alliance ahead with 136 seats as against 95 for the NDA
The biggest gainer, according to initial trends, is Lalu Prasad’s Rashtriya Janata Dal, which is set to vastly improve its previous tally of just 22 seats in the 2010 polls.
Lalu Prasad Yadav's youngest son - 26-year-old Tejaswi, who is tipped to be his political heir - and elder Tej Pratap, 27, won their maiden elections this time from Raghopur and Mahua
After the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, this was the second major setback for the Narendra Modi-Amit Shah duo after the BJP’s loss in the Delhi assembly elections.
Lalu Prasad Yadav - a two-time chief minister - has not contested this election following his conviction in a fodder scam case. He will be barred from contesting an election for six years.
Janata Dal-United (JD-U) leader Nitish Kumar will remain the chief minister of Bihar, RJD leader Lalu Prasad said on Sunday, after the Grand Alliance trounced the BJP in Assembly elections
Addressing the media , Lalu Prasad also said that his party and the JD-U will build a campaign against Prime Minister Narendra Modi nationwide.
Hailing Nitish Kumar’s leadership, Lalu Prasad said: “I congratulate Nitish Kumar. Nitish Kumar will run the government.”
He said Bihar will develop in a major way under Nitish Kumar’s leadership.
“The people of Bihar have wiped out the BJP, chased out the BJP,” Lalu Prasad thundered, adding that the BJP combine’s defeat would have a major impact on national politics.
He said he would also go to Varanasi in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh to see if Modi had fulfilled his election promises in his Lok Sabha constituency.
A victory for Modi in Bihar would have helped to deflate the Opposition which is seeking to corner the PM over what it says is jobless growth and for failing to rein in hardline Hindu groups campaigning on issues that are seen weakening secularism in multi-faith, modern India.
The outcome will also possibly set the political momentum for at least four crucial state elections -– Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Kerala and Assam -– next year and then in the key state of Uttar Pradesh in 2017.
At 12:15 am, the Election Commission of India says that the Grand Alliance was way ahead with leads in 158 constituencies, out of 243 seats in the Bihar Assembly. The BJP-led alliance was leading in 63 seats. Among the others, while the Communist Party of India (ML) (Liberation) was ahead in two seats, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) was in one and Independents in seven places.
12.45 a.m: Bihar BJP leader Sushil Modi concedes defeat, says party bows before people’s mandate and congratulates Lalu and Nitish on their victory
The BJP, the largest single party in the world, is reduced to number three in Bihar. The results could not be worse for the party in a high stakes election. At the last count it had won 52 seats, of the 160 it contested.
Bihar election results have given a clear mandate to Nitish Kumar-led RJD-JD(U)-Congress alliance
Though Nitish Kumar owes his victory to a powerful social coalition of backward classes and Muslims, he would be heading an inherently fragile coalition of three parties which are quite different from one another temperamentally and culturally
Nitish Kumar forged a formidable Muslim-Yadav-Kurmi coalition to which a significant section of the extremely backward classes (EBCs) got drawn