In Bihar, NDA seems to be overpowering the Grand Alliance. The BJP-led alliance has taken an impressive lead in over 180 of the 243 assembly seats in the state, with early trends also indicating that the saffron party is on track to register its biggest win with an impressive strike rate.
According to the trends available on the Election Commission website till noon, BJP is set to emerge as the largest party with a lead in more than 80 of the 101 assembly seats.
This performance will further cement its position as the number one political force in the country, and compensate for any setback it may have suffered from last year’s Lok Sabha elections.
The NDA’s lead in Bihar comes against the backdrop of the BJP’s consistently stellar performance in Delhi, Maharashtra and Haryana.
The firm support given by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his team to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has also benefited the JD(U), which is set to drastically improve its tally since 2020, when it had won only 43 seats, but is now leading in over 70 seats.
Prime Minister’s self-styled “Hanuman” and Union Minister Chirag Paswan’s party LJP (RLSP) is leading on more than 20 seats, while the party had contested only 29 seats.
The RJD, which boasted of being the “largest party” despite being in the opposition, has had a disappointing performance, with a lead in less than 40 seats compared to the 140 it had contested.
The Congress, which had contested 61 seats and fought “friendly battles” with allies on many of these seats, has managed to gain lead in less than 10 seats in Bihar with its image intact.
If the trends translate into results, the BJP will outperform JD(U) for the second consecutive election, which may lead to a demand among workers to have “their own chief minister”.
However, the Prime Minister and Union Home Minister Amit Shah have so far maintained an ambiguous stance on the issue, insisting that the NDA is “led by Nitish Kumar in Bihar”.
This strategy may have been adopted keeping in mind the fact that the BJP, which does not have a majority in the Lok Sabha, is dependent on allies like JD(U) and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu’s TDP to remain in power.
Prominent BJP candidates leading from their seats include Deputy Chief Minister Samrat Chaudhary (Tarapur) and Vijay Kumar Sinha (Lakhisarai).
Bharatiya Janata Party’s chief ministerial candidate RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav is trailing his BJP rival Satish Kumar by a slim margin of about 100 votes.
His elder brother Tej Pratap Yadav, who was expelled from the party by their father Lalu Prasad a few months ago, is in fourth place, far behind Mahua.