Bihar Results LIVE: RJD’s Strong Fight Against BJP, Congress Weak Link As NDA Surges Ahead

New Delhi:

One hour into counting for the high-voltage Bihar election, the BJP and the RJD are neck and neck in very early trends. The NDA, however, has taken the lead over Mahagathbandhan, thanks to BJP ally JDU’s strong show and RJD ally Congress’s poor performance. At 9.09 am, the Tejashwi Yadav-led RJD is leading in 56 seats, the BJP in 55, Nitish Kumar’s JDU in 45 seats, and the Congress in 7. These are, however, very early trends, and the numbers may change as the counting proceeds. 

In this election, the RJD contested 143 out of the 243 Assembly seats and the Congress 61 seats. The remaining seats were distributed among other Mahagathbandhan allies, including the Left parties and Mukesh Sahni’s Vikassheel Insaan Party.  As for NDA, the BJP and JDU are contesting 101 seats each. Chirag Paswan’s LJP (Ram Vilas), Jitan Ram Manjhi’s Ham (S), and Upendra Kushwaha’s Rashtriya Lok Morcha are the other NDA players.    

If these trends hold and the Congress delivers a subpar performance, it would again be the weak link in the Mahagathbandhan. In the 2020 Bihar polls, the RJD finished as the single-largest party, but the Congress performed poorly and the NDA formed the government. While the RJD won 75 out of the 144 seats it contested, the Congress managed just 19 of the 70 seats it fought on. The upcoming rounds will reveal if this year will be a repeat of 2020.