According to the poll, NDA may get 145-160 seats, Mahagathbandhan may secure 73-91 seats, Jansuraaj is unlikely to open its account, with other parties and independents winning 5-10 seats
New Delhi: The Opposition Mahagathbandhan “no holds barred” campaign centred around the “vote chori” allegations and the spirited efforts by Prashant Kishor’s fledgling Jan Suraaj Party will fail to dethrone the Nitish Kumar-led NDA government in Bihar, or so predict the exit polls. The average of all exit polls foretells a sweeping victory for the ruling alliance in Bihar.
The exit polls, which came shortly after the polling of the second phase ended in Bihar on Wednesday, have claimed Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar’s popularity remains unchallenged. The average of all polls gave the NDA alliance a comfortable 146 to 150 seats and roughly 90 seats to the Mahagathbandhan in the 243-member Bihar Assembly. The majority mark is 122.
The majority of pollsters have predicted that the Jan Suraaj Party will fail to open an account in the state or at most bag a seat here and there. The exit polls, however, have the tendency to go haywire.
Bihar saw a close electoral contest, with voters in large numbers expressing conflicting desires; some voted for a change, while others voted for the continuation of the present NDA regime. The presence of a large number of women voters at the polling booths, along with a highly polarised atmosphere where the Bhumihars and Rajputs seem to have joined hands against the INDIA bloc candidates in several seats like that of Begusarai, appears to be the reason for such an inclination of the exit polls. The Election Commission said that women actively participated in the second phase of voting in Bihar.
According to Matrize, 65 per cent women electors voted for the NDA, while 27 per cent of them voted for the Mahagathbandhan. People in the state claim that the `10,000 given to 25 lakh women under the Mukhyamantri Mahila Rojgar Yojna ahead of the polls and the ongoing ban on liquor by Mr Kumar have played an important role in swinging women voters' preference.
Four pollsters — Dainik Bhaskar, Matrize, People's Insight and Peoples Pulse — have predicted that the Mahagathbandhan will fail to even come close to the halfway mark in Bihar.
For the NDA alliance, in which both the JD(U) and the BJP contested 101 seats each, the pollsters have predicted a better performance for the JD(U), which got 43 seats in the 2020 state elections and was dependent either on the RJD-Congress combine or the BJP for support to form the government. However, this time around the exit polls have predicted a poor performance of the Opposition alliance, giving it far less than the 110 seats it won in 2020.
The India TV-Matrize exit poll forecasts 147-167 seats for the NDA, 70-90 for Mahagathbandhan and 0-2 for the Jan Suraaj party.
P-Marq predicts 142-162 seats for the NDA, 80-98 seats for the Mahagathbandhan and 1-4 seats for Jan Suraaj.
ABP has given a whopping 184-209 seats to the NDA, 32-49 to the Opposition and 1-5 to Prashant Kishor’s party.
As per Chanakya Strategies, the NDA should bag 132–138 seats, the Mahagathbandhan 100–108 and others 4 seats.
