Bihar Assembly Elections: NDA Poised for Landslide Victory, Exit Polls Suggest

Image Source: Internet

A record voter turnout in the second phase of Bihar's assembly elections has set the stage for a comfortable majority for the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), exit polls predicted on Tuesday. Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is likely to return for a historic fifth term, according to the polls. The exit polls, released after a grueling campaign that saw high voter turnout, suggest the NDA will cross the majority mark of 122 seats and possibly touch 160, its best performance since the 2010 assembly elections. The polls also forecast that the Opposition Grand Alliance, comprising the Rashtriya Janata Dal, Congress, and Left parties, may fare worse than its 2020 showing, possibly slipping below 100 seats. The polls were unanimous in predicting a bipolar contest, with the Jan Suraaj emerging as a minor force. Strategist-turned-politician Prashant Kishor's party, which contested the elections for the first time, may struggle to open its account, according to seven polls. The assembly polls, which concluded on Tuesday, saw a fiercely contested campaign focused on issues like jobs, development, law and order, and caste loyalties. The NDA campaigned on its welfare sops and governance promises, while the Opposition highlighted the lack of jobs in the state and promised a government job per family and sops for women. The final outcome of the elections will be known on Friday, when the votes are counted. However, the exit polls suggest that the NDA will maintain its momentum from the 2024 general elections, where it won 30 of the 40 Lok Sabha seats in the state. Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Samrat Chaudhary expressed confidence that the final outcome will be better than the exit polls predicted. In contrast, Congress leader Tariq Anwar dismissed the exit polls, saying that the main issues in Bihar were unemployment, migration, corruption, and health, and that the people had voted based on these issues.