Bihar election counting is still underway and so far incumbent Chief Minister Nitish Kumar-led NDA alliance is leading the election after crossing the halfway mark of 122 Assembly seats. So far, it seems Kumar will return to power with a fourth straight term. However, the counting of votes seems to be taking longer than usual due to coronavirus-related precautionary measures put in place.
Deputy Election Commissioner Ashish Kundra, during a press conference earlier, said: "Needless to say that there has been a glitch-free counting process so far. Slightly more than 1 crore votes have been counted in Bihar which means that there is significant ground to be covered yet."
Since the number of polling stations had to increase this year due to the coronavirus, the counting of votes is happening across 55 locations. Deputy Election Commissioner Chandrabhushan Kumar said the counting machinery on the ground is doing its work diligently without any glitch. "We hope to finish the counting as per the procedure late tonight," he added.
The EC Officials said trends and declaration of results might be prolonged in comparison to the last time's Assembly elections as polling stations have gone up 63% to ensure social distancing due to the pandemic from 72,723 earlier to 1,06,515.
According to the early counting trends, both Yadav brothers, Tejaswi and Tej Pratap Yadav are leading in their respective constituencies. Anant Singh of RJD is leading from his seat in Mokama.
Bihar Assembly Speaker Vijay Kumar Choudhary of JDU is trailing RJD's Arbind Kumar Sahni from Sarairanjan. Former Bihar minister Kumari Manju Varma of the JD(U) is trailing from the Cheria Bariarpur seat in Bihar with Raj Vanshi Mahto of the RJD leading by over 7,000 votes.
Luv Sinha contesting from Congress Party is also trailing behind BJP candidate Nitin Nabin in the Bankipur constituency.
The exit poll surveys had projected a storming victory for the RJD-led Mahagathbandhan or Grand Alliance. However, Mahagathbandhan seems to be lagging behind NDA with 106 seats.
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