As counting is underway, Bihar is eagerly waiting to know about the new face of Chief Minister-elect. While both the key rival parties-- NDA and Mahagathbandhan are locked in a tough battle in the Bihar Assembly election, an internal battle is going on within the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).
According to the emerging trends from the counting centres, in this intra-alliance fight, the BJP has clearly taken over the lead against the Janata Dal-United and other parties too.
As of now, the NDA has been able to cross the majority mark of 122 seats and is now leading with 133 seats while Mahagathbandhan is leading in 107 seats.
It is pertinent to mention here, within NDA, the BJP is leading at 73 seats while JDU at 49. However, the rest of the seats were taken by other NDA partners in the trend.
This winning of BJP is significant in itself after the 2000 election when the BJP was the senior partner of the JDU in Bihar Assembly election, CM Nitish Kumar's party has always been a "Big Brother" within the NDA.
The above practice made the five-time CM Nitish Kumar the face of NDA in Bihar. But, this situation does not seem to continue any further as the latest trends emerging from the counting centres show that if Nitish Kumar remains the CM after the polls, the NDA will also return to power which might affect the political position of Nitish Kumar in the office.
Interestingly, this situation would also work for LJP president Chirag Paswan, the Lok Sabha MP who campaigned exclusively against the JDU and CM Nitish Kumar. He used to claim during the election campaign that he was leading his party, the LJP in the election with the objective of forming a BJP-LJP government in Bihar. He campaigned for removing Nitish Kumar as CM.
For all 243 seats, NDA is leading on 127 seats with BJP leading in 74 seats, JDU leading in 48 seats, Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP) leading in 4 seats. The Mahagathbandhan is leading in 100 seats with RJD leading in 66 seats, Congress leading in 21 seats, and the Left leading in 19 seats. BSP is leading on two seats, AIMIM on 3, LJP on one, and independents on five seats suggests Election Commission's trends.