JDU's Anant Kumar Singh wins Mokama seat
JDU's Anant Kumar Singh, arrested in murder case during electioneering, wins Mokama by 28,206 votes.
JDU's Maheshwar Hazari wins Kalyanpur seat
JDU's Maheshwar Hazari wins Bihar's Kalyanpur seat by 38,586 votes, defeating CPIM(L) Liberation's Ranjeet Kumar Ram: EC.
JDU MLA Anant Singh, in jail for murder, wins Mokama seat
JDU MLA Anant Singh, in jail for murder, wins Mokama seat
Congress leads in only 3 of 61 seats it contested in Bihar polls: EC
The Congress was leading in just two of the 61 seats it contested in Bihar, in a massive setback for the party that fought the assembly elections as part of the RJD-led Mahagathbandhan.
Md Qamrul Hoda was leading in Kishanganj by 24,058 votes after 19 rounds of counting, while Ajeet Sharma was ahead in Bhagalpur by 4,797 votes after 15 rounds of counting, according to the Election Commission.
State Congress president Rajesh Kumar was trailing in the Kutumba seat.
Lalu's son Tej Pratap at 3rd position in Mahua
RJD supremo Lalu Prasad's elder son and Janshakti Janta Dal chief Tej Pratap was in the third slot in Mahua seat after the 13th round of counting, according to trends available on the Election Commission website on Friday.
Yadav, who recently floated his political outfit after being expelled from the RJD by his father, had been in the fourth spot after the eighth round.
He was trailing by 27,132 votes from Sanjay Kumar Singh of Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas), who is leading there.
Yadav polled 16,522 votes after the 13th round, while Singh of LJP (Ram Vilas) bagged 43,654 votes followed by Mukesh Kumar Raushan of the RJD (24,480 votes). Amit Kumar of AIMIM who earlier occupied the third spot slipped to the fourth position with 10,563 votes polled.
Tejashwi trailing by 4,829 votes in Raghopur Assembly seat
RJD leader and INDIA bloc's chief ministerial face Tejashwi Yadav was trailing BJP's Satish Kumar by 4,829 votes in Bihar's Raghopur assembly seat, which was witnessing a neck-and-neck fight on Friday, according to the Election Commission.
After 11 rounds of counting, Yadav secured 40,100 votes, while Kumar bagged 44,929 votes.
Jan Suraaj Party nominee Chanchal Kumar was in third place with 1,392 votes.
Yadav has been holding the seat for the last 10 years and had defeated Kumar in the 2015 and 2020 assembly elections.
Tejashwi was earlier leading by barely a few hundred votes after trailing for a while.
The RJD leader said his party workers and the people were ready to handle "any unconstitutional activity during counting", while a lesser-known RJD leader Sunil Kumar Singh threatened that a "Nepal-like situation" would be witnessed on the streets if the "counting is halted, like in 2020".
(PTI)
BJP's Samrat Choudhary wins from Tarapur
BJP's Samrat Choudhary wins from Tarapur
AIMIM leads in five seats
The Asaduddin Owaisi-led AIMIM was leading in five seats as counting was underway for the Bihar assembly polls on Friday, according to the Election Commission.
The party, which has significant influence in the Seemanchal region that has a high Muslim population, is contesting 29 of the 243 seats in the assembly. Twenty-four of the seats it is contesting are in the Seemanchal region.
All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen's (AIMIM) Md Sarawar Alam was leading in Kochadhaman by 13,996 votes after the 11th round of counting, while Akhtarul Iman was ahead in Amour by 14,262 votes after the ninth round of counting.
Ghulam Sarwar was leading in Baisi by 9,355 votes after the sixth round of counting, whereas Mohammad Murshid Alam was ahead in Jokihat by 5,332 votes after the 11th round.
The party's Thakurganj candidate Ghulam Hasnain was ahead by 357 votes after 10 rounds of counting.
Overall, the ruling NDA appeared to register a landslide victory, opening up impressive leads in more than 180 seats, with early trends also indicating that the BJP was on track to post its biggest tally with an excellent strike rate.
The AIMIM fought the elections independently, without joining either of the ruling or opposition coalitions.
The tally is likely to change with several rounds of counting still left.
Shashi Tharoor calls for ‘serious introspection’ as NDA takes big lead
Congress leader and Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor on Friday said he was not invited to campaign in the Bihar election, while noting that the Congress would examine the reasons for its defeat.
Speaking to reporters in the wake of the Bihar poll outcome, Tharoor said the party has a responsibility to study in detail the causes behind the setback.
“Remember, we were not the senior partner in the alliance and the RJD also has to look carefully at its own performance,” he said.
According to him, in a mandate like Bihar’s, it is important to examine the totality of the party’s performance.
He noted that elections are about a number of factors.
“There is, of course, the popular mood. There are questions about the organisation’s strengths and weaknesses. There is a question of messaging. These are issues that will have to be looked at,” he said.
Tharoor said the results would be analysed thoroughly. “I was not there and I was not invited to campaign in Bihar. So I can’t say much from personal experience. Those who were there will certainly study the outcome,” he added.
Meanwhile, Tharoor drew sharp criticism from senior Congress leader MM Hassan for his recent article against Dynasty politics in the party.
In another event, senior Congress leader M M Hassan criticised Tharoor and said that the MP entered politics with the support of the Nehru family and gained all his positions and fame because of them.
“I have also voted for Tharoor. He has not shed a drop of sweat for society or the country,” Hassan said.
He said that while Tharoor could criticise the Nehru family, but not as a member of the Congress Working Committee.
Hassan accused Tharoor of using the same “family politics” arguments employed by the BJP to target Rahul Gandhi.
“Before doing that, he should respectfully step away from the Congress Working Committee,” he said.
In a recent article for international media organisation Project Syndicate, the Thiruvananthapuram MP pointed out that Tharoor said dynastic politics across the political spectrum poses a "grave threat" to Indian democracy and asserted that it is high time India traded "dynasty for meritocracy".
(PTI)
Congress heavyweights fall behind as party leads in just six constituencies
Congress Bihar unit president Rajesh Kumar and legislature party leader Shakeel Ahmad Khan were trailing in Kutumba and Kadwa Assembly seats, respectively, according to the Election Commission's website.
Kumar was behind HAM (Secular) nominee Lalan Ram by 7,288 votes in Kutumba, while Khan, the Congress legislative party (CLP) leader, was trailing JD(U) candidate Dulal Chandra Goswami by 23,785 votes in Kadwa.
The party was leading only in six seats out of 61 it contested in the Bihar polls.
Congress nominee Surendra Prasad was leading from Valmiki Nagar, Mohd. Qamrul Hoda from Kishanganj, Manohar Prasad Singh from Manihari, Amita Bushan from Begusarai, Anil Kumar from Bikram, and Mangal Ram from Chenari.
SP chief slams BJP over SIR exercise, calls it an ‘electoral conspiracy’
Kannauj MP and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav warned the BJP’s strategy of Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls will fail in Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and other states.
“The game that was played via SIR will fail in Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and other states, because the electoral conspiracy is clear to the people. We won’t let them play this game any longer. Like CCTV our workers will keep a strong watch and foil the BJP’s plans. BJP is not a party, it is a fraud,” Akhilesh wrote on his X handle amidst the counting of votes in Bihar, where the BJP-JDU combine is making a clean sweep.
Poll-bound Bengal and Tamil Nadu are among the states where the EC has rolled out the SIR exercise, along with Uttar Pradesh and nine other states and Union territories.
Neck-and-neck fight in Raghopur seat, Tejashwi Yadav now ahead
Neck-and-neck fight in Bihar's Raghopur seat, RJD's Tejashwi Yadav now ahead of BJP candidate Satish Kumar by 219 votes: EC
BJP single largest party with 87 seats, JDU at 76, RJD 36, and Congress 6
BJP single largest party with 87 seats, JDU at 76, RJD 36, and Congress 6, according to Election Commission trends
Jan Suraaj Party slams voters after election results
“This election has proved to be a 10,000 election. For a mere Rs. 200 per month the votes were sold. When will we understand the value of our vote is much more,” the Jan Suraaj Party said in a post on X.
Amit Malviya mocks Rahul Gandhi after poll trends
“Rahul Gandhi. Another election, another defeat. If there were awards for electoral consistency, he would sweep them all. At this rate, even setbacks must be wondering how he finds them so reliably,” BJP IT Cell head Amit Malviya wrote on X.
Left parties leading in nine assembly seats
Left parties were leading in nine assembly seats in Bihar, according to the Election Commission.
CPI(ML) Liberation was ahead in seven seats, while the CPI(M) was leading in two.
CPI(ML) Liberation candidates were leading in Daraunda, Paliganj, Arrah, Dumraon, Karakat, Arwal and Ghosi seats.
CPI(M), on the other hand, was leading in Hayaghat and Bibhutipur seats.
Counting of the votes polled in the 243 assembly seats in the state was underway, with the NDA leading in over 190 seats and the INDIA bloc, of which the two Left parties are constituents, ahead in only 49.
Chirag Paswan-led LJP(RV) ahead in 22 of 28 seats
Union minister Chirag Paswan-led LJP(RV) ahead in 22 of 28 seats it contested in Bihar polls: EC.
Bihar minister and BJP nominee Mangal Pandey leads in Siwan by 8,780 votes over RJD's Awadh Bihari Choudhary: EC
Asaduddin Owaisi-headed AIMIM leads in 3 Bihar seats -- Kochadhaman, Amour, Baisi: EC
Tejashwi Yadav of RJD trails in Raghopur
INDIA bloc's CM candidate Tejashwi Yadav of RJD trails in Raghopur by 1,273 votes, BJP's Satish Kumar leads: EC
NDA leads in 166 seats, surpassing majority mark of 122; INDIA bloc ahead in 59
The ruling NDA was leading in 166 seats, surpassing the majority mark of 122, in early trends as counting was underway for the Bihar assembly polls on Friday morning, according to the Election Commission.
The opposition INDIA bloc was way behind, leading in 59 of the 243 seats in the assembly.
The tally is likely to change with several rounds of counting still left.
The BJP was leading in 72 seats, its ally JD(U) in 71, the LJP(RV) in 18, the HAM (S) in four, and the RLM was leading in one seat after the first few rounds of counting.
In the opposition bloc, the RJD was leading in 43 seats, the Congress in eight, the CPIM(L) Liberation in six, and the CPI and CPI(M) in one seat each.
The Prashant Kishor-led Jan Suraaj Party and the Mukesh Sahani-helmed VIP are trailing in all the seats they have contested.
Among the prominent candidates, singer-turned-politician Khesari Lal Yadav of RJD was trailing in Chhapra assembly, and BJP nominee Maithili Thakur, also a singer, was leading in Alinagar.
RJD's Osama Shahab, the son of gangster-turned-politician Mohammad Shahabuddin, was leading in Ragunathpur, and state minister Leshi Singh of the JD(U) was ahead in Dhamdaha.
INDIA bloc's CM candidate Tejashwi Yadav of the RJD was leading in Raghopur, and Deputy CM Samrat Choudhary of the BJP was ahead in Tarapur.
Another Deputy CM, Vijay Kumar Sinha, was leading in Lakhisarai, and JJD founder Tej Pratap Yadav was at the fourth spot in Mahua, with LJP(RV)'s Sanjay Kumar Singh leading in the seat.
(PTI)
As NDA takes lead, Pawan Khera says ‘we are waiting’
Early trends show victory for the NDA in Bihar. Congress leader Pawan Khera says, “This is just the beginning, and we are waiting. The trends show Gyanesh Kumar Gupta is making an impact on the people of Bihar. The people have shown great courage despite issues like SIR and ‘vote chori.’ How effective Gyanesh Kumar Gupta will be remains to be seen. This contest is between the Election Commission of India and the people of Bihar. There was a book called ‘To Serve with Love.’ Gyanesh Kumar Gupta is writing this book for PM Modi.”
