Bihar Election Results 2020 Live Updates

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP Chief JP Nadda took turns to tweet and congratulate and thank the people of Bihar for the mandate to the NDA.

JP Nadda said: "People of Bihar have put their stamp on Narendra Modi's public welfare policies, performance of development works and the NDA Government's leadership under Nitish Kumar.

Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told news agency ANI, "Today is a historic day that NDA has won again the extraordinary trust of the people of Bihar. They trusted PM Modi's leadership whose commitment resonated with them that without development of Bihar, development of India will remain incomplete. I have to make only one request to our friends in the opposition. We are dignified in our victory, let them show some grace in their defeat. That is the essence of democracy"

Union Minister Rajnath Singh said, "This is a victory of the NDA's commitment to good governance and development. I express my gratitude to the people of Bihar."

Here's a statistic that Congress party needs to go back to the drawing board with post elections.

The Congress party has scored just 9.54% of the voteshare (till 12:24am) or 39,82,995 votes in the elections.

Now compare to the 18.9% vote share or or 78,79,855 votes that Others received.

Others comprise the third largest entity in the state in terms of voteshare

Most exit polls that had given a clear edge to the Rashtriya Janata Dal-led Mahagathbandhan have been forced to bite the dust as the mandate in Bihar swung in favour of the National Democratic Alliance.

The ABP-CVoter exit poll prediction was the closest among all. It had projected 104-128 seats for the NDA and 108-131 seats for the opposition grand alliance.

Here are those whose predictions were off target:

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

* India Today-Axis My India poll showed the RJD-led opposition was likely to win 139-161 seats, as against 69-91 for the NDA. 

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

* Times Now-CVoter projected 116 seats for the NDA, 120 for the opposition alliance and a single seat for the LJP. 

* Republic TV-Jan Ki Baat exit poll also gave a clear majority to the RJD-led alliance with 128 seats, while it projected 104 seats for the ruling NDA, seven seats for the LJP and four for others.

With the NDA on track to gain majority, Union Home Minister thanked voters for supporting Prime Minister Narendra Modi's policies.

In a series of tweets, he said: "In these elections, the enthusiasm with which the public have expressed their faith in the policeies of PM Marendra Modi and the NDA is truly amazing. This result not only reflects the faith of the poor, labourers, farmers and youth in the successful fight of the Modi government against Coronavirus, but also a lesson for those who mislead the country."

"I thank the brothers and sisters of the state from the depths of heart for re-choosing development, progress and good governance in Bihar. I especially thank the youth and women of Bihar who formed the NDA government with absolute majority by choosing security and bright future in Bihar."

"Every section of Bihar has once again flagged the development of NDA by rejecting hollow politics, casteism and appeasement politics. This is the victory of the hopes and aspirations of every person in Bihar. This is a triumph of double engine development."

Meanwhile, a delegation of Congress and RJD leaders led by party MP Manoj Jha met the Election Commission to complain of election fraud.

RJD leader Manoj Jha said: "There are over dozens of seats where tampering has been done. They are trying to change the people's mandate, even after all such ill-intended attempts we'll form govt."

Congress leader Akhilesh Singh said: "There are discrepancies. We expect justice from Election Commission" 

Parallely, RJD supporters held a demonstration outside party leader and former Chief Minister Rabri Devi's residence, against CM Nitish Kumar for allegedly influencing counting of votes.

Highlights of Election Commission's third briefing of the day:

* Existing instruction states 'where margin of victory is less than no. of postal ballot papers rejected as invalid at time of counting, rejected postal ballot papers will be mandatorily reverified by returning officer before declaration of result'

* If needed, we will hold a briefing again around midnight for final updates

* About an hour ago, there was a post by a party on social media claiming that their party has won 119 seats. It is to clearly state that all results are on our portal, total results declared as of now are of 146 seats. That is the factual situation.

* Election Commission has never worked under anybody's pressure. All officials and machinery are working sincerely for declaration of the result.

With the three Left parties bagging seven seats and leading in 10 others in Bihar, CPI-M general secretary Sitaram Yechury was quoted by news agency PTI as warning naysayers against writing them off, saying had they been given more seats, they would have notched up higher numbers in the elections.

The CPI(ML) won 9 of the 19 seats they fought on and was leading in 3.

The CPI(M), which competed on four seats, won two. 

The CPI, which contested on six seats, won one and was leading in two.

The Left parties contested on 29 seats in the Bihar Assembly elections.

"We were clear from the beginning that we have to defeat the BJP. Our strike rate in Bihar is 80 per cent and if we had been given more seats, we would have contributed more to the Gathbandhan tally. Our alliance with the RJD and Congress combined issues of social justice with that of economic justice. One cannot be achieved without the other," Yechury told PTI.

Election Commission declared results for 82 out of the total 243 seats. 

BJP 23, RJD wins 23, JD(U) 15, Congress 7, CPI(M-L) 5, VIP 2, AIMIM 2, CPI, CPI(M), HAM(S) & Independent 1.

NDA leading on 124 seats
Mahagathbandhan on 112 seats
AIMIM on 5 seats

Asaduddin Owaisi's All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen, which was branded as 'vote cutter', looks all set to win five Muslim-dominated seats in the Bihar assembly polls.

AIMIM national spokesperson Asim Waqar told news agency PTI that a final decision on who AIMIM could back in case of a hung assembly will be taken by Owaisi, but ruled out supporting the BJP, asserting that his party’s fight has always been against the saffron party.

AIMIM could play a key role in the formation of the next government in case there is a hung assembly, having captured a sizeable number of seats in the state’s Seemanchal region, which was being seen as a stronghold of the grand opposition alliance.

Party position as of now in Bihar:

NCP chief Sharad Pawar said though the trends of Bihar Assembly election results favour the NDA, Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Tejashwi Yadav should be commended for putting up a "gritty" fight.

"The trends so far are in favour of the NDA. I think we did not pay attention to the Bihar election. We (NCP) did not contest because we felt that young leadership in the form of Tejashwi Yadav should come forward," Pawar told reporters, adding: "Tejashwi has put up a gritty fight." 

"We did not get desired results in the Bihar election. There are some reasons for it. What I saw in the entire campaign was that prime minister Narendra Modi himself took a lot of interest in the election. On one side there was a young, inexperienced person like Tejashwi and on the other side there was a person who was chief minister of Gujarat for several years and is now prime minister for the second term. And there was Nitish Kumar who has also been chief minister for several years," Pawar said.

News agency PTI is reporting that Union Home Minister Amit Shah dialled Chief Minister Nitish Kumar as the two leaders talked about the Bihar poll results and trends. 

Though the sources refused to divulge the details of their telephonic conversation, they said they discussed the poll results and trends. 

The NDA is marginally ahead of rival Mahagathbandhan, according to the latest Election Commission update on counting of votes

The RJD has just tweeted a major allegation against Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.

The tweet, when translated, says: "In almost 10 seats, the Nitish administration is delaying the count. It is not giving certificates to the winning candidates. Sitting in CM's house, Nitish Kumar and Sushil Modi are pressurizing CM's Principal Secretary to call all DMs and ROs to get a decision in favour of the nearest contested seats."
 

With the Bihar election counting set to go down to the wire, hectic political developments are underway in Patna.

Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi and BJP incharge for Bihar Bhupender Yadav arrived at the residence of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. 

Also present at the meeting at the residence of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in Patna is minister Mangal Pandey. 

The party situation as on 6:55pm

Manoj Jha, Rashtriya Janata Dal MP, has claimed that Nitish Kumar was trying to "delay his defeat" by calling returning officers to slow down the counting of votes

"Bihar is going to get its own government and nobody can stop it."

"I request Chief Minister whose exit is confirmed, to stop calling returning officers to slow down the counting of votes." 

"He can only delay his defeat" 
 

Highlights from the Election Commission briefing

* On the whole 7737 scheduled rounds are there, of which 4858 have been completed. 

* 119 constituencies have done more than half of the work which was there for counting

* There are 18 constituencies where margin of difference is less than 1000 votes

* There are 50 constituencies where margin of difference is between 1000 and 5000 votes

* There are 60 constituencies where margin of difference is between 5000 and 10,000 votes

* There are 108 constituencies where margin of difference is over 10,000 votes

* Two-third of the votes have been counted so far. 

* 62.5% votes counted so far

* Next EC media briefing at 10pm

* Most results will come in by tonight.

First they blamed the EVM, now they are blaming AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi.

The Congress is groping in the dark for answers for its yet another catastrophic election campaign.

And they seem to have an explanation for the party leading in only 18 of the 70 seats they contested in the Bihar Assembly elections -- that the BJP used Owaisi to cut into its votes.

Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury slammed AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi, saying: "BJP's tactic of using (Asaduddin) Owaisi Sahab's party in the Bihar elections has succeeded to an extent. All secular parties should be alert about vote cutter Owaisi Sahab."

Okay, so the gap between the BJP and the RJD is now narrowing. 

While both parties have scored two wins each till last reports came in, BJP and RJD are ahead in 74 and 68 seats respectively.

RJD supporters had claimed that the 'lantern' will shine bright as the counting goes late into the evening.

Is there another twist in the plot here?

With the NDA leading in 128 of the 243 seats in Bihar assembly, BJP state chief Sanjay Jaiswal said there is no dispute regarding who will lead the government if the alliance returns to power in the state. A party or a coalition requires 122 seats to form the government in Bihar.

"The issue has been cleared by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party chief J P Nadda much before the elections," he said, while responding to a query whether Chief Minister Nitish Kumar will lead the NDA government if the alliance secures a majority in the assembly.