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The ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) had a slight edge in a close contest with the opposition Mahagathbandhan (MGB) that levelled charges of tampering as the late counting due to Covid-19 restrictions delayed the declaration of results on Tuesday.
At the time of going to press, the RJD seemed to be the single largest party with its combined victory and leads in 77 seats. With 19 seats of the Congress and 17 of the Left parties, the MGB’s total was 113 while it also hoped to tap into the five seats that Asaduddin Owaisi-led AIMIM looked set to win.
The BJP had leads and victories in 72 seats but along with 43 seats of JD(U) and four each of the Vikashsheel Insaan Party and Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular), it already seemed to be set to win 123 seats, one above the majority mark of 122 in the 243-member State Assembly.
The RJD alleged that while it had won 119 seats, the State administration was instructing district officials against declaring results. The party released a statement on social media platforms to this effect.
Vote share
The RJD cornered 23.3 per cent of the votes polled while its alliance partner, the Congress, polled 9.4 per cent of the votes.
In the ruling coalition, the BJP polled 19.3 per cent, JD(U) 15.3 per cent and others 18.9 per cent at 9.30 pm, according to the EC website. The RJD has improved its vote share since 2015, when it contested the election as an alliance with the JD(U).
It got a smaller percentage of 18.4 per cent votes but won 80 seats in 2015. The JD(U)’s vote share was a little higher at 16.8 per cent and it won a much larger number of seats, i.e. 71, that year.
Both JD(U) and RJD insiders blamed Chirag Paswan’s LJP as the vote katwa (vote-cutter), as it failed to retain the two seats it had won in 2015 but cut into the votes of other parties — primarily the JD(U) — to bring down their tallies.
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