Bihar exit polls: Tejashwi Yadav led Mahagatbandhan gets the edge over JDU-BJP alliance

The hard-fought three-phased Bihar Assembly elections for 243 seats concluded on Saturday. While Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is hoping for another term in office, the Tejashwi Yadav led RJD is hoping to win over the young voters in the state. 

The exit polls, meanwhile, have given an edge for the Mahagatbandhan over the NDA in the state. The magic number to form a government is 122.

Most of the exit polls also predicted RJD to again emerge as the single largest party in the 243-member assembly along with a clear dip in the seat tally of JD(U).

The exit polls conducted by People's Pulse predicted 85-95 seats for RJD, 65-75 for the BJP, 25-35 for JD(U), 15-20 for Congress, 3-5 seats for the Left and 3-5 seats for LJP.

Name	Popularity
Tejashwi Yadav	36%
Nitish Kumar	34%
Sushil Kumar Modi	11%
Chirag Pashwan	6%
Nityanand Rai	5%
Giriraj Singh	3%
Jitin Ram Manjhi	2%
Mukesh Sahani	2%
Kanhaiya Kumar	1%

Data Courtesy: Peoples Pulse

Today's Chanakya-CNN News18 projected 180 seats for the RJD-led grand alliance, 55 for the NDA and eight for others.

Similarly, the Times Now-C Voter poll has predicted 120 seats for the Mahagatbandhan, 116 seats for the NDA and only one seat for the LJP.

The India Today-My Axis poll said that over 44 per cent of respondents wanted to see Tejashwi Yadav as the next CM, while 35 per cent wanted Nitish Kumar to return.

The ABP-CVoter exit poll predicted NDA to get 104-128 seats and 108-131 seats for the opposition grand alliance.

The first phase took place on October 28 in which nearly 54 per cent voter turnout was recorded while the second phase on November 3 recorded close to 55 per cent polling. In the third and final phase, the voter turnout till 5 PM was 52.80 per cent.

The results will be declared on November 10.

Bihar Exit Poll in Nutshell:

Total Seats: 243

Majority: 122

Pollster	NDA	Opposition Grand Alliance	LJP	OTHERS
People's Pulse	90-110	100-125	3-5	3-5
Today's Chanakya-CNN News18	55	180	4	4
Times Now-C Voter	116	120	1	6
India Today-My Axis poll	69-91	139-161	3-5	3-5
ABP-CVoter	104-128	108-131	1-3	4-8
Republic TV-Jan Ki Baat	91-117	118-138	5-8	3-6

The BJP had won 53 seats with 24 per cent vote share and Congress had 27 seats and seven per cent votes.In the last assembly elections held in 2015, the RJD had won 80 seats with a vote share of 18 per cent, while JD(U) won 71 seats with vote share of 11 per cent.

At that time, the JD(U) had fought the election in alliance with RJD and Congress among other parties, while LJP was in the BJP-led NDA alliance.

LJP had got two seats with five per cent vote share.

This time, JD(U) is back in the NDA, while LJP fought the election alone.

During the 2019 Lok Sabha elections when both JD(U) and LJP were in the NDA, the alliance had won 39 out of 40 seats in the state.

Main Election Issue In Bihar Polls 2020

Issue	Percentage
Unemployment	31%
Price rise	28%
Migration	19%
Floods	12%
MSP	9%
Other issues	1%

Data Courtesy: Peoples Pulse

Exit polls also predicted results for by-polls held in several states.

According to India Today-Axis My India exit poll, the BJP government in Madhya Pradesh will survive as it projected the party to win 16-18 seats, and Congress is estimated to bag 10-12 of the total 28 seats that went to polls.

Similarly, for bypolls in Uttar Pradesh, the exit poll predicted BJP to win 5-6 seats, SP 1-2 seats and BSP 0-1 seat, out of the eight seats for which polling was held on November 3.

In Gujarat where voting happened for eight seats on November 3, the same exit poll projected BJP to win 6-7 assembly seats and Congress a single seat.

BJP is in power in Gujarat as well as in Uttar Pradesh.

(With PTI Inputs)