Bihar polls: Nitish Kumar or Tejashwi Yadav?

An elderly voter shows her finger marked with indelible ink after casting vote during the third phase of Bihar Assembly Elections. Pic/PTI

The third and final phase of elections to the Bihar Assembly was by and large peaceful, with the Election Commission of India (ECI) registering 54.06 per cent polling in 78 constituencies in 15 districts till 5 pm on Saturday.

Muslim-dominated Kishanganj witnessed 59.77 per cent polling, Supaul 57.90, Saharsa 55.73, and Purnea 55.63. Other districts like East Champaran has registered polling percentage of 54.78, Sitamarhi 52.27, Araria 50.90, Madhepura 54.03, Muzaffarpur 54.54, Darbhanga 55.03, Samastipur 52.76 and Vaishali 49.97 till 5 pm.

Earlier in the day, Beni Singh, the younger brother of RJD supporter Bittu Singh, was gunned down in Damdaha Assembly constituency in Purnea district by unidentified assailants, police said. Singh was moving from booth to booth in the constituency. As he came out of a polling booth in Sarsi village, three to four assailants fired at him indiscriminately, killing him on the spot.

Meanwhile, an aggregate of opinion polls said that the Opposition coalition in Bihar led by Tejashwi Yadav will win 124 seats, just past the majority mark, and incumbent Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's National Democratic Alliance will win 110.

Times Now-C Voter gives 116 to the NDA and a slight lead for the Opposition Mahagathbandhan at 120. It says Chirag Paswan's Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) will win one seat. Republic TV-Jan Ki Baat gave 118 to 138 seats to the Opposition alliance and 91-117 seats to the ruling NDA. Chirag Paswan's party is likely to win five to eight seats, it says. Chanakya Exit Poll has predicted that NDA will secure 34 per cent vote share while the Opposition alliance is likely to win 44 per cent votes.

The Bihar results will be announced on Tuesday, November 10. Any party or coalition needs 122 for a majority in the 243-seat Bihar assembly. If these polls are any indication, it means that anti-incumbency may be a big challenge to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's bid for a fourth straight term. His campaign was marked by public displays of anger; besides heckling, the five-time Chief Minister faced an onion attack in one of his rallies.

Discontent over jobs, the migrant crisis, the handling of the Coronavirus and floods, could be the undoing of the Chief Minister who prided himself as "Susashan Babu". The polls indicate a tectonic shift from the national election just last year, when the NDA won 39 of Bihar's 40 Lok Sabha seats, decimating the Opposition and sending Tejashwi Yadav - who took charge of the RJD while his father Lalu Yadav served a jail sentence - into temporary self-exile.

But in this campaign, Tejashwi Yadav, 31, emerged as the crowd-puller, drawing huge cheers at every rally with his promise of signing off on 10 lakh government jobs at his very first cabinet meeting. In other news, a Presiding Officer posted at a polling centre in Muzaffarpur district's Katra Block died due to heart attack.

54
Percentage of polling registered in 15 districts

92% turnout in Manipur bypolls

Over 92 per cent of the 1,33,136-strong electorate had cast their votes in by-polls to the four assembly seats in Manipur on Saturday amid elaborate security and strict adherence to COVID-19 protocols. Manipur's Joint Electoral Officer Karam Bono Singh said that there was no major untoward incident reported till the polling ended at 5 pm. "Maintaining COVID-19 protocols, the voters joined the voting queue in many places before opening the polling stations at 7 pm," Singh said on Saturday evening.

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