New Delhi: The race to form the next government in Bihar which for a long period appeared to be going down to the wire, ended in the National Democratic Alliance’s favour. The NDA remained ahead in 125 seats at 2.30 am, while the Mahagathbandhan won 110 seats after a spirited fight. A party or coalition needs at least 122 seats in the 243-member assembly to form government.The BJP, during its campaign, tried to distance itself from the JD(U) and portray Narendra Modi, and not Nitish, as the face of the campaign to fight anti-incumbency. However, the trends suggest that Nitish has held on to his traditional support base, and this has worked well for the BJP too.Early trends from the Election Commission website had consistently shown the NDA ahead. Because of COVID-19 conditions, however, the counting process is running much slower than normal.The results of the Bihar assembly elections, held in three phases, began on Tuesday and were announced very early on Wednesday. The exercise decided the electoral fate of over 3,700 candidates who were in the race to win the 243 seats of the state assembly.Counting took place at 55 centres spread across 38 districts amid tight security and precautions to avoid the spread of COVID-19 pandemic during the process. Trends and results were delayed this time as the number of polling stations were raised from 72,723 earlier to 1,06,515, an increase of 46.5%, to ensure adherence to social distancing measures in view of the pandemic.Also read: Bihar Election Results Live: A Tight Race Ahead?The Mahagatbandhan or Grand Alliance, led by the Rashtriya Janata Dal and its young leader Tejashwi Yadav, had been hoping that the exit polls are proven true and chief minister Nitish Kumar is unseated after 15 years of rule – but that did not happen. The Magatbandhan comprises the RJD, Congress and Left parties, and most exit polls had given the alliance a clear edge over the Bharatiya Janata Dal-Janatal Dal (United) coalition. Chirag Paswan’s Lok Janashakti Party will win seats in the single digits, the polls predicted, and it won a single seat.The state has 243 assembly constituencies. The voter turnout this year was 57.05% – marginally higher than the 56.66% of the 2015 assembly elections.While the Mahagatbandhan mounted a campaign on the issues of “kamaai, padhai, dawai, sichai” (income, education, medicine, irrigation), the NDA came across as a divided house. With the BJP aware of rising anti-incumbency against Nitish and the JD(U), the campaign largely focused on national issues and the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Nitish, in his speeches, talked more about ‘misgovernance’ under Lalu Prasad Yadav and Rabri Devi than his achievements in the last 15 years.In the 2015 elections, the NDA won 125 seats in the 243-member House, while members of what is now the Mahagatbandhan won 110 seats. The LJP won 2 seats, and six seats went to others.In this election, the JD(U) was allocated 122 seats to contest from, and the BJP 121 seats. Out of its quota, the JD(U) gave seven seats to Jitan Ram Manjhi’s Hindustani Awam Morcha, and the BJP gave 11 seats to Mukesh Sahani’s Vikassheel Insaan Party. Both HAM and VIP won four each.Among the Mahagatbandhan parties, the RJD contested on 144 seats and Congress on 70. The three Left parties fought from 29 constituencies: CPI(ML) from 19 seats, CPI from six and CPI(M) four seats.
