Vote share in Bihar assembly elections

decoding vote share how bihar voted for different parties

New Delhi: Nitish Kumar-led Grand Alliance today secured a thumping majority in Bihar assembly polls with a win on 178 seats.

What came as surprise to many was performance of Lalu Prasad Yadav's Rashtriya Janata Dal. RJD secured win in 80 assembly seats with a vote share of 18.5 per cent.

Although RJD emerged as the single largest party, BJP secured most votes in the elections but that is because the party contested most seats in 243-member assembly.

Grand Alliance, which was made up of JDU, RJD and Congress, also emerged on the top in terms of vote share of nearly 46 per cent as against NDA's nearly 34 per cent.

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On single-party basis, however, the BJP managed a face-saver with a vote share of nearly 24.8 per cent -- higher than individual shares of 18.5 per cent for the RJD and 16.7 per cent of the JD-U.

BJP's NDA allies -- the Lok Jan Shakti Party and the Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) -- could manage only meagre vote shares of 4.8 per cent and 2.2 per cent, respectively.

The Congress, which fought elections as part of the Grand Alliance, also could manage a vote share of only about 6.7 per cent.

As many as 6.68 crore voters exercised their rights during the five-phase elections in the state with 243 Assembly constituencies. Out of these, 38 were reserved for SC and two for ST.

The number of voters in the last Assembly elections in 2010 stood at 5.51 crore, when the BJP and the JD-U had fought together and won 91 and 115 seats, respectively.

This time, JD-U forged the Grand Alliance with the RJD and the Congress, both of which have made remarkable turnarounds. While the Congress had won just four seats last time, its tally was 27 after taking into account winning and leading seats.

The RJD had won 22 seats last time and it has emerged as the single-largest party this time with an estimated 80 seats after taking into account the seats where it was leading.

Its ally JD-U looked set to win 71 seats, as against BJP's 53, as per the latest available data from the Election Commission.

The data showed that the BJP having got over 91.5 lakh votes on a consolidated basis, followed by RJD's 67.9 lakh and about 62 lakh for the JD-U.

Independents also got nearly 35 lakh votes (9.4 per cent) while the Congress polled over 25 lakh votes.

Asaduddin Owaisi's AIMIM failed to make any impact in its maiden Bihar elections, with just 0.2 per cent, or about 80,000 votes. This was much lower than even NOTA options chosen by the voters at 2.5 per cent (over 92 lakh votes).

Mulayam Singh Yadav's Samajwadi Party, which had refused to join the Grand Alliance, got about 1 per cent votes (over 37 lakh) while Mayawati-led BSP scored better at 2 per cent (over 74 lakh).