Will Bihar see a fourth term for incumbent Nitish Kumar or will the state get a new chief minister in young Tejashwi Yadav? The answer will be known with the results of counting of votes on Tuesday in the recently concluded and bitterly fought Assembly elections.
Bihar might be on the cusp of a major generational shift in politics with most pollsters predicting a landslide for the five-party Grand Alliance led by the young RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav.
Counting of votes will begin at 8 am today with all real-time trends and results of elections being made on Election Commission of India's website http://results.eci.gov.in and Voter Helpline App.
The ECI has set up 55 counting centres in all the 38 districts of the state, which had voted in three phases on October 28, November 3 and November 7 to decide the fate of 3,755 candidates.
The poll body also increased the number of counting centres to 55 in 38 districts across Bihar, in order to comply with social distancing guidelines.
The number of counting centres in the state was 38 during the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
Prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) have been imposed in and around the counting centres to prevent the gathering of people.
The official said that there is 24X7 surveillance by CCTVs inside counting centres and strong rooms have been locked and controlled by the paramilitary force.
"Candidates are allowed to sit outside counting centres to keep a watch and given live feed. Everybody who visits the counting centre then we have kept a logbook. Highest care has been taken so that counting centre is safe," he said.
Bihar Chief Election Commissioner HR Srinivasa said that the Election Commission provided 19 companies of paramilitary forces to guard strongrooms.
Bihar is the first state where the full-fledged election was held after the coronavirus outbreak in India.
Over 7,29,27,396 electors were eligible to vote in Bihar polls and the voter turnout was at 57.05% which was 0.39% higher compared to 56.66% in 2015 elections.
The Election Commission took precautionary coronavirus measures as it mandated face masks, hand sanitisers, thermal scanners, gloves, face shields, and PPE kits during the electoral process while ensuring social distancing norms.
The exit polls differed in their prediction of tallies of major players in Bihar assembly polls with most predicting an edge for Mahagathbandhan or its victory.
While some predicted that the ruling NDA and Mahagathbandhan were in the contest for the halfway mark in the 243-member assembly, others predicted a clear victory for the opposition alliance.
One exit poll also predicted that the NDA will be close to the majority mark and will lead Magathbandhan by nearly 50 seats.
This time Bihar witnessed a triangular contest with the ruling JDU-BJP alliance and grand alliance (RJD, Congress and others) and Chirag Paswan's Lok Janshakti Party (LJP), which is eying the role of a kingmaker in case of a hung Assembly.
On one side is the NDA which includes JD-U (115 seats), BJP (110 seats), Vikassheel Insaan Party (11 seats) and Jitan Ram Manjhi's Hindustani Awam Morcha (7 seats).
Mahagathbandhan constitutes RJD (144 seats) and the Congress with 70 seats.
Other alliance partners include the CPI-ML (19 seats), CPI (6 seats), and the CPIM (4 seats).
Incumbent chief minister Nitish Kumar was the face of the NDA while Mahagathbandhan declared Tejashwi Yadav as its chief minister candidate.
LJP contested over 130 seats on its own and fielded candidates against all JD-U nominees and only a few against BJP.
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is eyeing his fourth term with ally BJP by his side. In 2015, however, Kumar-led Janata Dal (United) fought polls with Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Congress under the Mahagathbandhan banner.
The BJP-led NDA had fought the elections with LJP and other allies.
RJD with 80 seats had emerged as the single largest party in the elections, followed by JD-U (71) paving way for Nitish Kumar to take oath as Bihar Chief Minister for the third term.
BJP was reduced to 53 seats and got the largest vote share (24.42%).
However, in 2017, differences emerged between the RJD and JD-U, resulting in Chief Minister Nitish Kumar returning to the NDA.
Tejaswi Yadav, the former deputy chief minister and Mahagathbandhan chief ministerial candidate, is seeking re-election from the Raghopur seat, RJD's stronghold since 1995.
His brother Tej Pratap, a sitting MLA from Mahua assembly in Vaishali district, was in the fray from Hasanpur assembly seat this time.
Bihar Assembly Speaker Vijay Kumar Choudhary fought the elections from the Sarairanjan seat in Samastipur as a Janata Dal(United) nominee. The five-time MLA from Sarairanjan faced Arvind Kumar Sahni of the RJD.
Former BJP leader Shatrughan Sinha's son Luv Sinha made an electoral debut and contested from Bankipur constituency on the Congress ticket.
He was pitted against sitting MLA BJP's Nitin Nabin. Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav, chief of Jan Adhikar Party-Loktantrik (JAP-L) is contesting from the Madhepura assembly seat.
Congress fielded Suhasini Yadav, the daughter of chief of Loktantrik Janata Dal (LJD) Sharad Yadav on Bijariganj seat in Madhepura district.
Shreyasi Singh, a national shooter and the daughter of former Union minister Digvijay Singh, was given from the Jamui seat by the BJP.
BJP and JD (U) leaders attacked RJD for its "Jungle-Raaj" (lawlessness) in their past tenure, RJD leaders constantly pitching their pre-poll promise of providing 10 lakh jobs to youths.
Along with 19 lakh jobs for the youth, BJP promised that every person in the State will get vaccinated free of cost after the approval of the coronavirus vaccine from ICMR.
On the other end, the Lok Jan Shakti Party has also promised job opportunities in its manifesto, dubbed a vision document of "Bihar First, Bihari First", but hasn't stated any figures.
Chirag Paswan, chief of the LJP--a former ally of the NDA--has been vocal in his criticism of Kumar, who is the chief ministerial candidate of the NDA.
He has, however, pledged support to the Prime Minister, calling himself "Modi's Hanuman".
Tejashwi Yadav constantly attacked and ridiculed the Chief Minister for being "physically and mentally tired".
(With ANI inputs)