(MENAFN- AsiaNet News)

Congress Hopeful for Trend Reversal

Even as early trends showed the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) having a likely comfortable majority in Bihar assembly, Congress party's Bihar in-charge Krishna Allavaru refrained from calling it, instead opting to wait till the end of the day and expressing confidence in a for a flip of the trends. He said that 20 years of Nitish Kumar's governance has not brought people anything good, and that is why it is time for Mahagathbandhan to form the government. "Trends are just for the start, lets see till the end. We have a hope that a government is formed which will do good for the people of Bihar, that is what we want. It seems that if someone has been given 20 years (to do work), and they can't do so now Mahagathbandhan should get a chance," Krishna Allavaru told ANI here.

He further raised concerns over alleged "vote chori," saying that the Congress has repeatedly protested against the alleged malpractice. "Repeatedly we have seen how someone gets the blessing of the people but the election gets stolen. On this multiple parties, including Congress have protested against it," he said.

Early Trends: NDA Takes Comfortable Lead

Early trends in counting of votes in the Bihar Assembly elections on Friday showed the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) way past the halfway mark of 122, with the Mahagathbandhan lagging. At 10:00 am, NDA was leading at 159 seats, with the Bharatiya Janata Party's lead on 69 seats and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar-led Janata Dal (United) ahead in 67 constituencies. Chirag Paswan's LJP(RV) was leading on 14 seats, with a conversion rate of 53 per cent. JD(U) has maintained a high conversion rate of 70 per cent, with the BJP at a 67 per cent conversion rate.

Mahagathbandhan has been trailing, with a lead of just 76 seats. While Tejashwi Yadav's Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) was leading on 51 seats, maintaining a conversion rate of 38 per cent. RJD's allies showed an underwhelming performance as per the early trends. Congress was leading on 17 seats while Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation is leading on five seats, with a decent conversion rate of 30 per cent. Meanwhile, Prashant Kishor's Jan Suraaj was leading on two seats, and AIMIM was ahead on just one seat.

Vote Counting Underway

Counting of votes for all 243 constituencies began at 8 am amid tight security. Officials began tallying postal ballots, with the counting of EVM votes scheduled to start at 8:30 am. According to the ECI's official press note, 2,616 candidates and 12 recognised political parties participated in the two-phase polls on November 6 and 11, and none requested repolling in any constituency. (ANI)

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Asianet Newsable English staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

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