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Patna, November 14 (IANS) Counting of votes for the Bihar Assembly elections began on Friday, with initial trends from the Election Commission giving a clear and decisive lead to the NDA and a setback to the Grand Alliance. As of 10 am, the poll panel showed the NDA leading on 127 seats, while the Grand Alliance had a lead on 42 seats.
The highlight of the early trends is JDU reaching the top position and emerging as the largest party.
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.
According to Election Commission of India’s initial updates till 10:00 am, BJP is leading on 50 seats, JDU on 58 seats, LJP (RV) on 15 seats and HAMS on four seats. On the opposition side, RJD is leading on 30 seats, Congress on 10 seats and CPI (ML) (L) on 2 seats.
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, which includes 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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