Bihar Polls: Counting Across 55 Centers Begins Today

Counting of votes across 55 counting centres in Bihar has begun. The mandate on a fierce campaign and 15 years of Nitish Kumar rule will be out today. Will the Tejashwi Yadav-led Mahagathbandhan make it to the government like the exit polls have predicted or will Nitish Kumar prove them all wrong and get elected for a fourth term as the Bihar chief minister. The fate of 3,558 candidates who contested in the Bihar Assembly Election 2020 will be decided today as counting for Bihar assembly election results 2020 began at 8 am.

The outcome will decide whether the Nitish Kumar-led JDU-BJP alliance will retain power for the next five years or make way for the Tejashwi Yadav-led Mahagathbadhan.

Exit poll results have anticipated the Tejashwi Yadav-led alliance to win a majority of votes and form the next government in the state. All eyes are on the counting across 55 centres in the state to see the final outcome. Bihar has recorded a higher voter turnout in the 2020 Bihar assembly election as compared to the 2015 election despite the Covid-19 pandemic.

As most exit polls predicted a rout for the ruling NDA and Nitish Kumar government in the Bihar assembly election result, NDA refused to entertain the predictions and said that such surveys often fail to see the large group of 'silent voters'. Leaders of RJD and Congress, which helm the Grand Alliance or Mahagathbandhan, hailed the exit polls as a mandate on their fierce campaign while Chirag Paswan's Lok Janshakti Party insisted that its rebellion against Nitish Kumar and JDU stood vindicated as the exit polls suggested that the "anti-incumbency" was very strong.