The Election Commissioner of India will begin counting of votes for the Bihar Assembly Election from 8 am on Friday. Almost 24 hours before the results, top leaders in Bihar on Thursday (November 14) held hectic parleys and reviewed last-minute preparations. The Bihar results will make it clear whether Nitish Kumar of the JD(U) and the longest-serving Chief Minister, has enough public support to secure a record fifth consecutive term, or the people have opted for a change.
Exit polls have been nearly unanimous in predicting a clean sweep for the NDA, of which the JD(U) is a part, much to the annoyance of the opposition INDIA bloc.
The atmosphere was upbeat in the NDA camp, with BJP leaders have already placed orders for massive quantities of sweets to be distributed on what they already foresee as the “day of victory”, news agency PTI reported.
Senior JD(U) leader Shravan Kumar, who held the rural development portfolio in the outgoing government, predicted a victory for the NDA, but with a difference.
Tejashwi Yadav, the young RJD leader whom the opposition coalition has named its Chief Ministerial candidate, rubbished these predictions and cited past goof-ups in the media like exaggerated reports of Indian armed forces’ action during Operation Sindoor and, more recently, unverified reports of “death” of legendary actor Dharmendra, who was convalescing at a Mumbai hospital.
The NDA in Bihar comprises five parties, though a bulk of seats, in the 243-strong assembly, were contested by JD(U) and BJP, both of which fielded candidates in 101 constituencies each. The INDIA bloc includes RJD, Congress, CPI(ML) Liberation, other Left parties, and Vikasheel Insaan Party (VIP).
Prominent candidates of both alliances who are in the fray include deputy chief ministers Samart Choudhary and Vijay Kumar Sinha, RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav, JJD’s Tej Pratap and Bihar Congress president Rajesh Kumar.
Here are the top points on the Bihar assembly election results 2025:
War of words: Rashtriya Janata Dal leader and INDIA bloc’s chief minister candidate Tejashwi Yadav said his party workers and the common people were ready to handle “any unconstitutional activity during counting”.
Another RJD leader Sunil Kumar Singh, threatened that a “Nepal-like situation” would be witnessed on the streets if “counting is halted, like in 2020”.
The Bharatiya Janata Party strongly reacted to the RJD leaders’ comments, with party state president Dilip Jaiswal saying the BJP leaders were in constant touch with workers at counting centres and hoped that, as the polling went peacefully, the counting day would also remain eventless.
Historic voter turnout: Bihar registered a record-breaking voter turnout of 67.13 per cent in the elections to the 243-member assembly in two phases on November 6 and 11.
As per the Bihar chief electoral officer (CEO)’s office, in the second phase the Muslim-dominated Seemanchal recorded the highest turnout with an average figure of 75.10 per cent. It was driven by heavy polling in the region’s districts, including Kishanganj (78.06%), Katihar (78.63%), Purnia (76.04%), and Araria (69.68%).
Counting of votes will begin at 8 am, and the trends and results are likely to start trickling in by 9 am. A total of 46 counting centres have been enumerated by the Election Commission across 38 districts in Bihar.
A total of 7.45 crore voters were eligible to decide the electoral fate of 2,616 candidates.
According to a statement issued by the EC on Wednesday, EVMs and VVPATs used in the elections have been sealed inside the strong rooms under a double-lock system.
Strong rooms set up: A control room has been set up within every strong room campus, which will be staffed with senior district officials. All district election officers and returning officers of the assembly constituencies concerned have been directed to frequently inspect the strong rooms.
What did the Bihar exit polls predict? Exit polls have been nearly unanimous in predicting a clean sweep for the NDA, of which the JD(U) is a part, much to the annoyance of the opposition INDIA bloc.
While the Dainik Bhaskar exit poll predicted 145-160 seats for the ruling NDA, 73-91 for the Mahagathbandhan, and 5-7 for others, the Times Now-JVC exit poll gave 135-150 seats to the NDA, 88-103 to the Mahagathbandhan, and 3-6 seats to others.
The News 18 poll predicted 140-150 seats for the NDA, 85-95 for the Mahagathbandhan and 0-15 seats for others, including the Prashant Kishor’s Jan Suraaj.
The IANS-Matrize predicted 147-167 seats for the NDA, 70-90 for the INDIA bloc and 2-8 for others. The P-Marq poll projected 142-162 seats for the NDA, 80-98 for the Mahagathbandhan, and 0-3 for others.
On Wednesday, two fresh exit polls also pointed to an NDA victory in Bihar, with Axis My India showing a clear edge for the ruling alliance and Today’s Chanakya forecasting a big win for it over the Mahagathbandhan.
Both the exit polls forecast a disappointing electoral debut for Prashant Kishor’s party.
The Axis My India Exit Poll predicted that the NDA would be ahead of the Mahagathbandhan in Bihar but the RJD would emerge as the single-largest party when results for the Assembly polls are announced on Friday.
Axis My India predicted the NDA to win between 121-141 seats, and the Mahagathbandhan 98-118 seats.
It gave 0-2 seats to the Jan Suraaj.
Today’s Chanakya forecast that while the BJP and its allies would get 160 seats (with a plus-minus margin of error of 12 seats), the RJD and its allies would bag 77 seats (with a plus-minus margin of error of 12 seats).
It forecast that the BJP and its allies would bag 44 per cent (plus-minus 3 per cent) vote share and the RJD and its allies would get 38 per cent (plus-minus 3 pr cent) votes.
The projections come a day after all major exit polls predicted a return of the NDA government in Bihar with a big victory over the Mahagathbandhan.
All exit polls have unanimously forecast a poor electoral debut for Prashant Kishor’s Jan Suraaj.
In its party-wise break-up, Axis My India predicted that the RJD would be the single-largest party getting between 67-76 seats, followed by the JD(U) at 56-62 seats, BJP 50-56 seats, Congress 17-21 seats, Vikassheel Insaan Party 3-5 seats, and Left parties 10-14 seats.
