NDA retains power in Bihar by slimmest of margins

The NDA has returned to power in Bihar, though by the slimmest of margins, as results on the Election Commission site indicated that it crossed the majority mark of 122 seats in the 243-member house as the NDA comprising the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Janata Dal United, Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP) and Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) winning 125 seats in all.

The BJP emerged victorious on as many as 74 seats while the JD(U) managed to win on 43 seats. Smaller allies, the HAM and the VIP won four seats each.

The opposition Mahagathbandhan ended up with 110 seats, with the Rashtriya Janata Dal winning 75 seats, the Congress 19 and the Communist Party of India-Marxist-Leninist (Liberation) winning 12.

The Communist Party of India and the Communist Party of India-Marxist won two seats each.

The first mass election in the country amidst conditions created by COVID-19 has paved the way for the return of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for the fourth successive term in office.

The closely contested battle saw the Mahagathbandhan narrowing the gap between the two alliances during the day with political parties in fray keeping an eye on the narrow margins.

While BJP performed a stellar role in NDA's victory winning 72 seats, RJD also gave a spectacular performance by bagging 75 seats and emerged as the single largest party in the 243-member Bihar legislative assembly.

The Congress could win only 19 of 70 seats it contested and it impacted the Mahagathbandhan tally.

Chirag Paswan led-Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) which fielded over 130 candidates only managed to secure only one seat.

RJD secured 23.1 per cent vote share, the highest in this polls, followed BJP with 19.5 per cent. JDU and Congress got vote share of 15.4 per cent and 9.5 per cent respectively.

A delegation of RJD and Congress went to the Election Commission office in Patna and alleged "tampering" in the counting of votes in some constituencies.

After leaving the ECI office, RJD leader Manoj Jha who was part of the delegation said that tampering had been done on over a dozen seats in an effort to change "people's mandate" and added that EC has assured the delegation it will "try to address their grievances".

"There are over dozens of seats where tampering has been done. They are trying to change the people's mandate. Even after all such ill-intended attempts, we will form the government. EC has assured us that they will try to address all our grievances. We trust the EC but not the district administration," Jha told reporters.

Umesh Sinha, Secretary-General, ECI said that the Election Commission has never worked under anybody's pressure.

"All officials and machinery are working sincerely for declaration of Bihar election results," he said.

In 2015 Assembly polls, RJD with 80 seats had emerged as the single largest party in the elections, followed by JD-U (71). BJP was reduced to 53 seats and got the largest vote share (24.42 per cent).

With indication of a NDA victory in sight, Prime Minister Narendra Modi took to Twitter to thank the people of Bihar whom he said clearly stated development as their priority.

"The poor in villages, farmers, labourers, merchants, shopkeepers and every section of Bihar have relied on the NDA's mantra of sabka saath, sabka vikas, sabka vishwas. I again assure every citizen of Bihar that for the balanced development of every person, every region, we will continue to work with full dedication," he tweeted in Hindi.

"Every voter in Bihar has clearly stated that he or she is an aspirant and priority is only and only development. The blessings of the NDA's good governance again after 15 years in Bihar shows what Bihar's dreams are, what Bihar's expectations are," PM Modi said.

Other leaders like Union Ministers Amit Shah, Ravi Shankar Prasad and BJP chief JP Nadda also extended their congratulations on the poll victory.