In Bihar's Keoti, the Assembly polls have become a showdown between two politicians, with the rest of the contenders gathering only a mere handful of votes. Veteran RJD leader Abdul Bari Siddiqui continues to trail behind his BJP competitor by a significant margin. At 4:15 pm, he had garnered 70247 votes (43.6% of the votes) while Murari Mohan Jha of the BJP had 75333 votes (46.76% of the votes).
With the counting process expected to continue till late into the night, it is possible that their fortunes may be reversed. However, it must also be noted that a margin of over 5,000 votes may also prove impossible to recover from. Siddiqui has been trailing for quite some time now. One the Finance Minister of Bihar, Siddiqui has been a multi-term MLA with a lengthy political career.
At present, the Election Commission has declared the results for only one seat, while counting continues for the rest. The NDA is leading in 129 seats while the Mahagathbandhan is ahead on 103 seats. With the COVID-19 pandemic continuing to wreak havoc, polling had taken place with 63% more EVMs than 2015 Bihar polls as COVID-19 protocol. Thus, counting will take extra time and is expected to continue till late into the night.
While celebrations have broken out sporadically across the state, many have adopted a wait and watch policy to ensure that their favoured candidate and party is indeed poised to win.
