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Patna, Nov 14 (IANS) Bihar Deputy Chief Minister and BJP leaders, Vijay Kumar Sinha and Samrat Chaudhary, are leading with significant numbers in their respective assembly constituencies, early trends showed on Friday.
As the NDA hopes for a landslide victory, early afternoon trends from the Election Commission of India (ECI) show Samrat Chaudhary leading in the Tarapur assembly seat by over 28,000 votes, while RJD’s Arun Kumar is trailing by a margin of over 6,000 votes.
Meanwhile, after trailing initially, Vijay Kumar Sinha is now leading in the Lakhisarai assembly seat by over 20,000 votes, leaving Congress’s Amresh Kumar behind by a margin of over 5,300 votes.
Additionally, early trends also show that BJP is emerging as the largest party in the Bihar Assembly elections, currently leading in 85 out of 243 seats.
By afternoon, the BJP was leading on 85 seats, confirming its position as the largest party, while the Nitish Kumar-led Janata Dal (United) was leading on 77 seats.
Both the parties, who are allies in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), are aiming for victory to form the government again under the leadership of Nitish Kumar.
Just an hour earlier, at 11.00 am, JD(U) was leading on 83 seats, while BJP was leading on 78 seats.
The situation changed dramatically within the next half hour, as the allies competed hard for the title of largest party.
NDA is currently leading on 188 seats, while the Grand Alliance is leading on 47 seats.
The counting process for all 243 assembly seats began at 8 am, starting with the verification of postal ballots. This was followed by counting of Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) votes from 8.30 am, which took place under elaborate multi-layered security arrangements across the state.
The candidates of both the alliances expressed confidence in their performance. NDA leaders emphasized that the people of Bihar have reposed faith in the guarantees of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the work of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for the development of the state.
The RJD-led grand alliance claimed that Bihar “voted for change” and expressed hope that Tejashwi Yadav would form the next government.
The counting operations are being monitored by 243 returning officers and an equal number of counting observers appointed by the Election Commission.
More than 18,000 counting agents representing various candidates are present at the centers to closely monitor the process.
Entry into counting centers has been strictly restricted to persons with valid passes, and use of mobile phones inside the counting halls has been completely banned.
More than 70 crore voters participated in the elections, casting their votes to decide the fate of both the ruling NDA and the Grand Alliance. Voting was held in two phases on 6 and 11 November.
In the outgoing assembly, the NDA has 131 seats, including BJP’s 80, JD(U)’s 45, HAM(S)’s four and two independents. The opposition faction has 111 seats, of which RJD has 77, Congress has 19, CPI (ML) has 11, CPI (M) has two and CPI has two.
–IANS
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