Bihar exit polls predict return of NDA

 

 

EXIT Polls on Tuesday predicted a return of the NDA Government in Bihar with a big victory over the Mahagathbandhan, and a disappointing show by Prashant Kishor’s Jan Suraaj in its debut outing. The Bihar polls were conducted in two phases on November 6 and 11, and the results will be announced on November 14. While the Matrize Exit Poll forecast the NDA likely getting between 147-167 seats, the Mahagathbandhan 70-90, and the Jan Suraaj between 0-2 seats, Dainik Bhaskar predicted 145-160 seats for the NDA and 73-91 for the Mahagathbandhan. Two pollsters -- Axis My India and Today’s Chanakya -- will release their exit polls on Wednesday. While the People’s Insight predicted 133-148 seats for the NDA, 87-102 for the Mahagathbandhan and 0-2 for Jan Suraaj, the People’s Pulse gave 133-159 seats to the NDA, 75-101 to the Mahagathbandhan, and 0-5 to Prashant Kishore’s party.

 

The JVC forecast 135-150 seats for the NDA and 88-103 for the Mahagathbandhan. The Polstrat predicted 133-148 seats for the NDA and 87-102 for the Mahagathbandhan. While the Chanakya Strategies gave the NDA 130-138 eats, 100-108 to the Mahagathbandhan, and zero to Jan Suraaj, pollster P-Marq predicted the NDA to win 142-162 seats, Mahagathbandhan 80-98 and Jan Suraaj 1-4. The majority mark in the 243-member Assembly is 122. Exit poll projections are made by election survey agencies based on interviews of voters as they come out after casting their votes. These may vary widely from the actual results. While the NDA, comprising the BJP, JD(U) and LJP (Ram Vilas) as the major alliance partners, is looking to return to power in Bihar, the Opposition INDIA bloc, which has the RJD, the Congress and the Left parties as the main constituents, is looking to form the Government with RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav its chief ministerial face. Bihar on Tuesday recorded its highest-ever voter turnout of 67.14 per cent, provisionally, at close of polling in the second and final phase of the high-stakes elections, seen as a veritable referendum on the state’s longest-serving Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.

 

 

 

 

 

BIHAR on Tuesday witnessed a record-breaking turnout of nearly 69 per cent in the second and final phase of polling, wrapping up a nearly month-long exercise that saw the ruling NDA defend its “sushasan” pitch against the opposition’s onslaught, promising “change”. The results, which will be declared on November 14, will decide whether Nitish Kumar, the JD(U) president and the longest serving Chief Minister, secures yet another tenure or his former deputy Tejashwi Yadav, who has likened the 20-year-old regime to a “rickety old car” (khataara), takes the wheel. Briefing reporters, Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Vinod Singh Gunjiyal said the state recorded 68.79 per cent voter turnout, provisionally, in the second and final phase of the assembly polls. In both phases, the state registered a voter turnout of 66.90 per cent, provisionally, which is 9.6 percentage points more than the last assembly polls, the CEO added. In the 2020 Assembly polls, the state recorded a voter turnout of 57.29 per cent. Polling began at a brisk pace, with figures made available by the Election Commission constantly surpassing the same for the corresponding period on November 6, when 121 seats had witnessed, in the first phase, the “highest ever turnout”