JK News Today
Patna, November 10:
Bihar Election Results 2020: State saw a bitter and hectic election campaign.
Amid a high-stakes battle in Bihar, ruling NDA is ahead of the opposition’s Grand Alliance – led by Tejashwi Yadav – nearly five hours after the counting of votes began across 38 districts. In early leads, Tejashwi Yadav was surging ahead; however, it now seems Nitish Kumar is likely to be voted to power for a fourth straight term.
NDA is past the halfway mark and the BJP has emerged as the single largest party, according to the projections. Despite ruling the state for a decade and a half, Nitish Kumar’s JDU is leading in fewer seats as compared to ally BJP. Of 243 seats, the JDU contested 122 seats, while the BJP contested 121 seats.
After weeks of bitter and hectic election campaign, counting of votes began this morning amid strict restrictions to check the spread of coronavirus. The state, which has over 7 crore voters, held the country’s biggest since the start of the pandemic, which has affected over 85 lakh people in India.
Nitish Kumar’s ex-ally Chirag Paswan, who chose to go solo this time, is another young leader on the frontline in the state apart from Tejashwi Yadav, ex-chief minister Lalu Prasad Yadav’s son. The JDU today said the ruling party has been “hurt” by Chirag Paswan’s stinging comments amid the campaign heat after he parted ways.
Over the last few weeks, a fierce campaign saw Prime Minister Narendra Modi – the NDA’S de-facto face- seeking votes for Nitish Kumar. The BJP-JDU combine has been targeted by opposition over issues such as unemployment and the handling of the pandemic.
As he shared stage with Nitish Kumar during election rallies, PM Modi spoke of “jungle-raj” under RJD’s Lalu Prasad Yadav before Nitish Kumar took over as the chief minister, suggesting that voting for Tejashwi Yadav will push the state into anarchy, again.
Tejashwi Yadav, on the other hand, made a big poll promise of 10 lakh jobs. While the BJP attacked Tejashwi Yadav over the issue, the party’s manifesto also made a mention of 19 lakh jobs, apart from “free Covid vaccine” – which gave more ammunition to the opposition. Many opposition leaders alleged that the ruling party is using pandemic to get votes.
Nitish Kumar, who has faced jibes, slogan-shouting crowds and on one occasion, an onion attack, has said this will be his last election. “This election will end and this is my last election. Ant bhala to sab bhala (All’s well that ends well),” he said while campaigning in Bihar’s Purnea,” he said last week.
