Bihar Election 2020: BJP emerges as single-largest party in NDA

Initial trends suggest the NDA has established an early lead in 53 of the 243 seats in Bihar assembly

Did Prime Minister Narendra Modi deliver Bihar for the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA)?

Election officers at a counting centre in Patna on Tuesday. (AP)

PM Modi addressed 12 meetings in the three-phase Bihar elections, which covered 99 of the 243-member legislative assembly in the state.

He addressed three rallies in the first phase and nine rallies in the second and third phase of elections, respectively.

The polling was held on October 28, November 3 and 7.

Initial trends suggest the NDA has established an early lead in 73 of these seats and the BJP emerged as the single-largest party in the multi-cornered contest. The BJP had last won 90 seats, its best performance so far, in the 2010 assembly election.

Of the NDA allies, the BJP contested on 110 seats, senior ally Janata Dal (United) (115), Bollywood set designer Mukesh Sahani’s Vikassheel Insaan Party (11) and Jitan Ram Manjhi’s Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) (7).

In the 2015 assembly polls, the BJP had won 53 seats and had a vote share of 24.42%. The JD (U), which had broken ranks with the NDA five years ago and joined hands with arch-rival Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), had won 71 seats.

The BJP had announced that Nitish Kumar would be the NDA’s chief ministerial candidate, irrespective of seats won by any party in the NDA.