The BJP-led NDA on Tuesday appeared set to retain the upper hand in Bihar, where the saffron party seemed to be performing below expectations but allies put up a better-than-expected show.
Counting of votes was underway at a slow pace, but as per trends and results available by the evening, the ruling alliance had bagged the reserved seat of Gaya and was leading in 29 other constituencies.
The JD(U), headed by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, was leading in 12 seats, as many as the BJP, despite having contested one less than the latter, which fielded candidates in 17 constituencies.
Performance in the current elections in Bihar has been a letdown for the BJP which had won 22 seats in 2014 and five years later, when it contested only 17, returned with a cent per cent strike rate.
With the majority likely to elude the BJP, key allies like Kumar are expected to play the kingmaker, a reason why opposition leaders like arch-rival Lalu Prasad’s RJD and Maharashtra stalwart Sharad Pawar, both key figures in the INDIA bloc, have held out an olive branch to the JD(U) president.
Another NDA partner putting up a fine performance was Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas), headed by Chirag Paswan, who along with the four other candidates, had established virtually unassailable leads in their respective seats.
Former Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi, who heads the Hindustani Awam Morcha, also succeeded in making his parliamentary debut at the ripe age of 79, contributing the reserved seat of Gaya to the NDA kitty.
However, another NDA partner Upendra Kushwaha, a former Union minister who heads Rashtriya Lok Morcha, was trailing in Karakat seat, where he was a distant third.
The NDA candidate, for whom top leaders of the BJP like Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh had campaigned, seemed to have been done in by Bhojpuri superstar Pawan Singh, who entered the fray as an Independent, earning an expulsion from the BJP.
Singh was trailing behind Raja Ram Singh Kushwaha of CPI(ML) Liberation by close to 90,000 votes.
The Left party, which is an INDIA bloc constituent, was also well placed in neighbouring Arrah, where Sudama Prasad had established a comfortable lead over two-term BJP MP and Union minister RK Singh.
The RJD, the opposition alliance’s largest partner in the state, had contested 23 seats, but it was ahead of rivals in only four, including Patliputra, where national president Lalu Prasad’s daughter Misa Bharti was leading by close to 60,000 votes over former close aide and two-term BJP MP Ram Kripal Yadav.
The Congress, which was the only party outside the NDA to have won a seat in 2019, could improve its tally. It was leading in Muslim-majority Kishanganj, besides adjoining Katihar which former Union minister Tariq Anwar seeks to wrest back and the reserved constituency of Sasaram.
In Purnia, former MP Pappu Yadav, who had contested as an Independent after the seat went to RJD dashing his hopes of getting a Congress ticket, was leading by a slender margin of about 9,000 votes.
