Bihar exit poll figures

New Delhi

Here is the chart of all major exit polls presented on news channels and on websites. Five exit polls gives more seats to Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad Yadav led JDU-RJD-Congress alliance, while two including Today’s Chanakya give more seats to BJP led alliance compared to rival JDU+. The results will be out on Sunday, November 8.

IANS report
Bihar battle ends, exit polls split on outcome
New Delhi

Bihar’s bitterly-contested staggered elections ended on Thursday evening, with exit polls sharply split on who would get to rule the state: the BJP-led alliance led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi or Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s Grand Alliance.

While three of the nine surveys at the end of five rounds of polling predicted a clear win for the Bharatiya Janata Party and another gave an upper hand to it, five exit polls forecast a narrow or clear majority in the 243-member house to the Grand Alliance.

Despite the exit poll suspense, leaders of both the BJP and the Grand Alliance — the Janata Dal-United (JD-U) of Nitish Kumar and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) of Lalu Prasad — claimed they were sure of victory.

“We are hopeful of getting a clear majority,” said BJP spokesman Nalin Kohli. “Although the (exit polls) ranges are close, I won’t arrive at any hasty assessment,” he said, indicating cautious optimism in the BJP.

Former chief minister Lalu Prasad, however, insisted that the Grand Alliance, which also includes the Congress, was poised to win 190 seats.

“The entire backward community of Bihar has voted for us,” he told the media in Patna. “We salute them for this.”

None of the exit polls, however, gave either alliance such a huge victory as claimed by Lalu Prasad.

While Today’s Chanakya gave 155 of the 243 seats to the BJP and its three allies, NewsX-CNX said the JD-U and its allies would get 135 seats. It forecast a mere 83 seats to the JD-U, the RJD and the Congress.

In contrast, NewsX said the BJP and its allies — the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP), the Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) and the Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP) — would win only 95 seats.

Other exit polls predicted a close outcome.

Any party or combine would need 122 seats to secure a wafer thin majority in the 243-member assembly. The millions of votes polled in the five rounds of polling from October 12 — about 60 percent of the 66.8 million electorate voted — will be counted on Sunday.

An India Today-Cicero exit poll predicted a hung assembly, with the BJP-led alliance winning 120 seats to 117 by the Grand Alliance. It gave the BJP alliance 113-127 seats and the Grand Alliance 111-123 seats. Four to eight seats could go to other parties.

A Dainik Jagran exit poll said the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) would get a majority with 130 seats as compared to 97 for the Grand Alliance.

The Times Now-CVoter survey gave 122 seats to the Grand Alliance and 111 to the NDA.

The ABP News gave the BJP and its allies 130 seats compared to 108 to the JD-U-RJD-Congress alliance.

News Nation also gave the JD-U and its allies an edge, with 120-124 seats, while the BJP and its allies could get 115-119 seats.

India TV-C Voter also predicted 111 seats to the BJP combine and 122 to the Grand Alliance.

Even before the exit polls were telecast, JD-U spokesman K.C. Tyagi told IANS in Patna that the Grand Alliance was confident of winning a “stupendous mandate”.

Neither Modi or BJP president Amit Shah — who micro-managed the Bihar election — nor Nitish Kumar spoke to the media.

Earlier on Thursday, nearly 60 percent of the 1.55 crore electorate turned out to vote in the last of the 57 constituencies spread across seven districts: Kishangaj, Purnea, Araria, Katihar, Saharasa, Madhepura and Supaul.

Despite widespread apprehensions, the staggered election passed off peacefully, even in areas considered to be strongholds of Maoists who had called for an election boycott.

The voter enthusiasm was evident on Thursday too, with tens of thousands queuing up at polling booths even before they opened at 7 a.m. A total of 827 candidates were in the fray.

Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi’s Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) contested from six constituencies, making its foray into Bihar.

Earlier on Thursday, the stock market dipped over a possible lack of clear mandate in Bihar.

The Bihar election is a big test for the BJP, whose winning streak since the 2014 Lok Sabha polls was halted by the Aam Aadmi Party in Delhi in February this year.

PTI report:
Lalu predicts 190 seats for grand secular alliance
Patna

Though majority of the exit polls predicted that grand secular alliance was narrowly ahead of its NDA rival in Bihar elections, RJD President Lalu Prasad today exuded confidence that his grouping would win no less than 190 seats.

“We are going to win not less than 190 seats,” Prasad asserted while talking to reporters.

The RJD chief coincided the timing of his press conference at his party office here with the timing of exit polls broadcast by TV channels after completion of the fifth and final round of voting in 57 seats to buttress his forecast of 190 seats.

“These exit polls are prepared in towns and sitting in a room. But my claim of 190 seats is based on reading the pulse of people during campaign,” Prasad, who addressed over 240 rallies during the five-phase polling in the state, said.

“I am an Honours degree holder in political science,” he said to justify his calculation of 190 seats.

Hinting that the “Mandal factor” played a major role in taking the secular alliance ahead, Prasad said, “Golbandi (coming together) of backwards and dalits was more sharp this time than it was in 1990 (when RJD came to power for the first time after implementation of Mandal commission report providing reservation in jobs).”

“When Nitish and I, the two backward castes leaders, came together there was perfect unity among OBC…upper castes, on whom the NDA was banking, but they did not turn out in large numbers as they found it difficult to defend the PM who did not fulfil any of the promises he had made during Parliamentary election,” he said.

The RJD chief said his supporters voted aggressively, particularly after the Prime Minister threw the “shaitan” (devil) barb at him.

He pointed to a recent statement of Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh that Amit Shah need not resign as BJP chief on the basis of Bihar election outcome and said, “It makes it clear that the BJP knows it has lost the election.”

Supremely confident of victory in the Bihar poll, the RJD chief said he and other secular alliance leaders would travel to West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, where Assembly elections are due in the near future, to appeal to the anti-BJP parties to come together like he and Nitish Kumar had done.

NDA would get two third majority in Bihar polls: Giriraj
Mathura

Union Minister Giriraj Singh has accused RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar of diverting people’s attention from the basic issue of development and said that BJP-led NDA would get two third majority in the Bihar Assembly election.

“Even though Nitish and Lalu focused on personal attack rather than talking on developmental issues, NDA would get two third majority in Bihar elections and the results on November 8 would be startling,” the Union Minister told reporters here yesterday.

“Their discussions were focused on beef or reservation for the backward community. They even made filthy remark against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP’s national President Amit Shah,” he said.

Hitting out at the NDA government’s critiques, the Minister said, “They have been exposed as their claim to teach a lesson (Chhati Ka doodh yad Aa Jayega), would rebound and they themselves would learn a lesson (Nani Yaad Aa Jayegi)”.

On being asked why BJP has not named its Chief Ministerial candidate for Bihar polls, he said, “It is our internal issue. Let the election result be declared, we shall name the Chief Minister also. Meanwhile, I am not in the race.”

Reacting to Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan’s statement on “intolerance” in the country, Singh said, “People highlighting Pakistan in spite of their permanent stay here have no right to stay in India.”

Charging Congress for showing intolerance since long, the Union Minister for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises said, “From the emergency to Sikh riots, Bhagalpur riots, forced eviction of Kashmiri Pundits from Kashmir in 1990 are all examples of intolerance of Congress.”

Earlier during his visit to Central Institute for Research on Goats (CIRG), Singh asked the scientists to design ways of increasing milk production.

“There is shortage of milk production. Scientists should find out ways to resolve it. Their efforts should appear on field, instead in labs,” he said.

Exit polls predict close fight in Bihar with edge to Nitish
New Delhi

Exit polls at the end of five- phased polling in Bihar assembly elections today predicted a close fight with majority of them giving an edge to the grand alliance of JDU-RJD-Congress over the BJP-led NDA grouping.

Polls on Times Now in association with C-Voter predicted 122 seats in a house of 243 to the grand alliance while News X predicted 130 to 140 seats for it. The two channels gave the BJP-led alliance 111 and 90 to 100 seats respectively.

India Today-Cicero poll predicted 113 to 127 seats for the NDA comprising BJP, LJP, HAM (Secular) and RLSP and 111 to 123 for the JDU-led alliance.

Hindi channel India TV forecast 112 to 132 seats for the JD-U led alliance and 101 to 121 for the NDA.

The Nitish Kumar-led alliance was predicted to get a simple majority of 120 to 124 by the News Nation channel, which predicted 115 to 119 seats for the rival alliance.

In the outgoing assembly, the JDU and BJP had contested elections and together and won a massive majority. The JDU had won 115 seats and BJP 91. The RJD had won 22 and Congress 04 when they contested on their own.

The JDU-BJP alliance broke in 2013 after Chief Minister Nitish Kumar announced that his party was walking out of NDA over the BJP’s decision to anoint Narendra Modi as the chief of BJP’s campaign committee for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

In the Parliament elections, the BJP won 22 of the 40 seats and its allies won nine. RJD and JDU had fought separately and won four and two seats respectively. Congress, which contested in alliance with RJD, had also won two seats while NCP one. PTI AMR KR

The exit poll by Chanakya on News-24 channel predicted a strong majority for the BJP-led NDA a figure of 155 (plus minus 11) and the JDU-led grouping 83 (plus minus 9). Others have been given five seats (plus minus three).

ABP-Nielsen poll predicted 130 seats for the JD(U)-led alliance against 108 for BJP-headed grouping. ‘Others’ have been given 5 seats. PTI