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Ahead of Bihar results, exit polls predict NDA win; Tejashwi rejects pollsters' projections
Tejashwi Yadav countered the exit poll predictions, saying his own party's assessment showed that the BJP and the NDA were “nervous and anxious”.
With the Bihar election results 2025 set to be declared on Friday, most pollsters have handed the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) a victory. As NDA leaders welcome the projection, opposotion leaders from RJD and Jan Surraj have objected to the exit polls.
Union minister Nityanand Rai, speaking to ANI news agency, said the people of Bihar had given their “seal of approval for the NDA government.” He further claimed the NDA would win even more seats than predicted.
“In Bihar, the influence of our Prime Minister Narendra Modi's name and work, along with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's wave of good governance, is evident,” ANI quoted Rai as saying.
See latest updates on the Bihar Assembly polls here.
What did the exit polls predict?
In the exit polls, most pollsters have predicted a win for the ruling NDA alliance. The Axis My India projection said the NDA would get between 121 to 141 seats in the 243-member Bihar Assembly. The majority mark is 122 seats.
The pollster predicted that the Mahagathbandhan would put up a strong fight and bag between 98 to 118 seats. It further showed that Tejashwi Yadav was the top choice for the chief minister's position in Bihar.
However, while Axis My India predicted a narrow win for the NDA, others pollsters, including People's Pulse poll survey, have projected a comfortable victory for the BJP and JDU-led alliance.
People's Pulse gave NDA 133-159 seats, while giving 75-101 seats to the Mahagathbandhan, and 0-5 seats to Jan Suraaj. It predicted others would get 2-8 seats.
According to Today's Chanakya, NDA will be seeing a bumper victory, securing 148-172 seats, with the Mahagathbandhan projected to win 65-89 seats. The other parties, including the Jan Suraaj, are likely to get 3-9 seats, according to the pollster.
People's Insight survey has also predicted 133-148 seats for the NDA, and 87-102 seats for the Mahagathbandhan. It has given 0-2 seats to Jan Suraaj, and 3-6 seats for independent candidates. According to the JVC pollster, NDA is likely to get 135-150 seats, and the Mahagathbandhan 88-103 seats.
Tejashwi Yadav questions exit poll projections
Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader and Mahagathbandhan's chief ministerial face for Bihar Tejashwi Yadav, however, questioned the predictions made by pollsters.
He countered the predictions, saying his own party's assessment showed that the BJP and the NDA were “nervous and anxious”, ANI news agency reported. Tejashwi said the NDA was “restless” because of the “kind of voting that took place.”
The RJD leader said that on the day of the second phase polling, “people stood in long queues during voting”, alleging that some had stayed there till 6 or 7 pm.
“People patiently waited to cast their votes. And while voting was still going on, exit polls started coming out,” Tejashwi said, while addressing a press conference.
Congress says ‘wait for real results’
Meanwhile, Congress general secretary (organisation) K C Venugopal, citing the example of the Haryana Assembly elections, asked people to “wait for real results.”
“Exit polls in Haryana predicted a landslide victory for Congress, but what happened? We have now demonstrated what happened in Haryana. Let us wait for the real results,” Venugopal said, according to ANI news agency.
Congress MP Digvijaya Singh further alleged “manipulated voter list”and EVMs if the NDA wins by more than 140 seats. “When I visited there, it was an equal fight... If the NDA wins by more than 140 seats, it will be due to a manipulated voter list and a manipulated EVM,” ANI quoted Singh as saying.
