Bihar Election Results 2020: Chirag Paswan's LJP draws blank, cuts into JDU votes

Chirag Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) has neither won any seat, nor is leading on any, the Election Commission (EC) trends show. However, the party candidates, who contested only in 143 seats where the Janata Dal (United), or JDU, had fielded is candidates, have so far managed to get over 5.6 percent votes.

As the trends suggest, the LJP has succeeded in damaging Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s JDU by cutting into its votes in at least 28 seats. Of the 43 seats where the JD-U and LJP had fielded candidates, the JD-U's tally from 2015 has gone down by 28 seats. However JD-U's tally has gone up by 6 seats in 77 seats where LJP is not contesting.

The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) may be doing well, but the JDU has clearly underperformed by leading in 41 seats (6 won) as per the EC website. In 2015 elections, when it had contested elections as part of the Grand Alliance, or the Mahagathbandhan, the JDU had bagged 71 seats.

The LJP had, in 2015, won 2 of the 42 seats it contested.

JDU spokesperson K.C. Tyagi said a "sinister" campaign was run against Nitish Kumar as part of a "conspiracy". "Our own also harmed us along with the outsiders," he told news agency PTI, without taking any names. He, however, expressed confidence that Kumar will become the chief minister again.

As Bihar election trends continue to change, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) has overtaken the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as the single-largest party. The RJD is currently leading on 77 seats (8 won), while the BJP is leading on 73 seats (won 11). Overall, the NDA was leading in 120 seats and the Mahagathbandhan on 115 seats, according to the EC.