Patna: The incumbent Nitish Kumar-led Janata Dal-United (JDU) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) alliance is leading in 128 seats, well above the halfway mark of 122, CNBC TV18 reported.
It has surged ahead of Mahagathbandhan, an alliance of Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Congress and Left parties, which is leading in 102 seats.
BJP’s Murari Mohan Jha has snatched the Keoti assembly seat from the RJD by 8000 votes. He defeated Abdul Bari Siddqui, a senior leader who was finance minister in the RJD-JD(U) government in 2015.
The Election Commission of India informed that only 1 crore of the total 4.10 crore votes had been counted till 1 pm and the final result is expected to come by late tonight. “Earlier, there used to be 25-26 rounds of counting, but this time it went up to around 35 rounds. So the counting will continue till late evening,” Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Bihar, HR Srinivas told the media.
TRENDS
Former Bihar CM Jitan Ram Manjhi, who was earlier trailing RJD’s Uday Narain Choudhary, now leads by over 2,400votes in Imamganj seat.
11 of 13 Ministers leading, 2 trailing, reports IANS
The margin of difference between the leading and trailing candidates is less than 200 votes in 16 seats – Alauli, Aurangabad, Bakhri, Baikunthpur, Barahatti, Barbigha, Belaganj, Chapra, Minapur, Kasba, Obra, Patepur, Rajgir, Sarairanjan, Vaishali, Warisnagar
