Most exit polls have predicted that a majority for the latter. Exit polls frequently get it wrong. The election took place amid a bitter campaign that saw the Chief Minister battling anti-incumbency, a rebellion by Lok Janshakti Party’s Chirag Paswan contrary to his leadership – seen by many as being endorsed by the BJP – and Prime Minister Narendra Modi replacing Mr Kumar as the de facto face of the NDA from the state.
An aggregate of opinion polls suggests that the resistance coalition will win 128 of Bihar’s 243 chairs and the NDA, 99. Chirag Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party is awarded six chairs. The exit polls, however, have often got it wrong. An India Today-Axis poll on the favoured chief minister claims 44 percent chosen Tejashwi Yadav and Nitish Kumar is next to his former deputy with 35 percent.
The effort saw Tejashwi Yadav – that took the reins of the party as his dad Lalu Yadav was jailed in a series of corruption cases– come of age, drawing massive crowds at his rallies throughout the state.
Tejashwi Yadav has been running an issue-based campaign. But his promise of signing off on 10 lakh jobs was the great hook, his party said, at the background of the widespread unemployment in the country since the lockdown began in March.
Alongside the opposition effort, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has confronted jibes, slogan-shouting audiences and on one occasion, an onion assault. In several instances, he’s seen to have lost his cool.
In his campaign, Mr Kumar has concentrated increasingly on jibes against the oppositoin party, targeting Tejashwi Yadav repeatedly within the law and order problems throughout the 15-year tenure of his parents Lalu Yadav and Rabri Devi. Even Prime Minister Narendra Modi had known him as the”Jungle Raj ka Yujraj”.
Tejashwi Yadav has refused to be goaded into any angry retort. Instead, he has repeatedly said that the ruling alliance was targeting him because they weren’t eager to respond to the burning problems in the state- unemployment, migrant crisis, corruption and prohibition-related issues.
On the last day of this campaign, Nitish Kumar made a shock announcement that this could be his last election. Although his supporters tried to describe it saying he just meant it was the previous day, the opposition wasn’t convinced.
While Tejashwi Yadav said revealed his evaluation that the 69-year-old Chief Minister was”tired”, Chirag Paswan warned people against voting for anybody who wouldn’t be answerable to them.
Chirag Paswan, whose party is contesting solo in this election, is expected to become an integral factor and one which might prove expensive for Nitish Kumar.
The situation is expected to benefit the BJP if no apparent majority emerges – Mr Paswan has repeatedly underscored his devotion to the party.
An upset in Bihar will be an enormous change for the NDA, which won 39 of the nation’s 40 Lok Sabha seats in last year’s general elections. Already, the NDA’s lacklustre effort has fueled speculation that the BJP’s master strategist, Amit Shah, is obsessed with neighbouring Bengal, where assembly elections are due next year.
