Employees at the office of the health department at the state secretariat watch the telecast of the counting on TV and (below) a family at the deserted P&M Mall, which houses the Cinepolis cinema. Pictures by Piyush Kumar Tripathi and Ranjeet Kumar Dey

This Friday was different. TV screens beaming the Lok Sabha poll results ruled over 70mm screens screening new releases.

Right from the morning, people were eager to know the general election’s outcome. Health freak morning-walkers finished their “workouts” in a hurry at Patna Zoo and Rajdhani Vatika and walked back home quickly to catch up with the poll results on TV.

The adrenaline rush went high as the initial trends started flashing on the television screens around 9.30am. Discussions about the BJP in the driver’s seat dominated the breakfast discussions in most homes.

“It is quite strange to see that contrary to the speculation that RJD would get around 10-15 seats, they are leading in only three-four as of now. Worse is the position of the JD(U), which has been leading in just two seats. The BJP seems to be having a clean sweep this time,” Om Prakash Yadav, a state government employee, told his family members while getting ready for the office.

Multi-system cable operators in the city claimed that ABP News was the most-watched channel, followed by ETV Bihar.

“The load on our server was very high today (Friday). As we had perceived such a situation, our entire maintenance team was ready to address any problem right from the morning. ABP was the most watched channel for national updates. The second most-watched channel was ETV Bihar, as people were watching it for Bihar-specific results,” said Rajnish Dixit, director, SITI Maurya Cablenet Pvt Ltd.

The excitement meter continued to surge as the day progressed with the Sun God scaling high in the skies.

People engaged themselves in getting the election updates through all possible means. Youngsters used their smart phones and tablet PCs, while professionals used their laptops to get live updates.

Offices, both private and government, were agog with minute-to-minute update and discussions about the results. Employees made a beeline to watch the updates at the offices in the state secretariat having TV sets.

“The workload is comparatively less today (Friday). Soon after coming to the office, the managing director went to the chamber of the secretary of a department at the new secretariat building, who is his friend. While both of them must be watching the election result telecast together, the employees here are checking updates on the Internet,” said an employee of a state government undertaking under the condition of anonymity.

The footfall at hangout spots, including theatres and parks, was comparatively low on Friday because people preferred to watch the climax of the elections 2014.

World's most famous monster Godzilla (3D) and Himesh Reshammiya-starer The Expose found few takers at Cinepolis — the lone multiplex of the city in P&M Mall — on the release day.

“Only 780 seats were filled in our multiplex till 3pm today (Friday). The occupancy is normally around 1,500 till that time on Fridays. Obviously people have preferred to watch the election results than the movies. Moreover, the blockade at Boring Road because of counting at AN College also stopped many people from coming to Pataliputra. Several cancellations were done because of that,” said Abhishek Ranjan, unit manager, Cinepolis, Patna.

Rajdhani Vatika, popular as Eco-Park, also wore deserted look till late afternoon hours.

“Who is interested in coming to the park today? Everyone is busy in watching the election results. The scorching heat might have also acted as a deterrent,” said one of the guards at Eco-Park.

Back in the market areas, some shop owners kept their shutters down for celebrations.

“Achche din aa gaye hain, Modiji PM banne wale hain. Isliye aaj humlog celebrate kar rahe hain (Good days have come. Narendra Modi is going to become the Prime Minister. Thus, we are celebrating today),” said Satish Srivastava, owner of a merchandise shop at Kankerbagh.

Shops along Boring Road witnessed negligible footfall on Friday.

“It is around 4pm now and not a single customer has come to my shop till now. This is the general scenario at most shops in this complex. People seem to be busy watching the election results,” said Nihar Hisariya, a shop owner at Harihar Chambers on Boring Road.