The Bihar Assembly elections may have several thousand candidates in the fray, but two of the most prominent figures are the Chief Ministerial candidates. While Nitish Kumar will be fighting to lead for a fourth term, the Mahagatbandhan has projected RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav as its CM face. The ECI, as of the update shared at around 11:00 am, projects that the NDA is leading the race on 117 seats while the Mahagathbandhan is ahead on 95 seats.
And while the numbers continue to fluctuate, Tejashwi Yadav has secured himself a strong lead in the Raghopur seat. At around 11:15 am, Yadav had secured 47.51% of the votes, while JD(U) leader Raj Kumar Ray trailed behind him with 33.98% of the votes. Currently a total of 11,488 votes have been counted.
However, not all RJD members are faring that well. Yadav's brother Tej Pratap who is contesting as the RJD candidate from the Hasanpur seat had slipped behind his JD(U) opponent for some time, before regaining his lead. As of 11:45 am, Yadav had managed to secure 45.41% of the votes, while JD(U) leader Raj Kumar Ray is now trailing with 36.29% of the votes.
Another heavyweight from the allied Congress too is not faring well. As per the trends shared by the Election Commission of India, Luv Sinha, the son of Congress leader Shatrughan Sinha is trailing behind his BJP opponent Nitin Nabin from the Bankipur seat.
In related news, trouble seems to be brewing in the JD(U) camp, where party spokesperson KC Tyagi seemed to have resigned himself to an unfavourable outcome soon after the counting started. "In last one year, nothing has harmed brand Nitish or added to brand RJD, we're losing only due to COVID19 impact," he was quoted as saying by news agency ANI at around 10:00 am.
