Exit polls give Congress-RJD’s Mahagathbandhan slight edge in Bihar : The Tribune India

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Exit polls give Congress-RJD’s Mahagathbandhan slight edge in Bihar

A voter undergoes thermal screening before casting vote during the third phase of Bihar Assembly Elections, at a polling station in Muzaffarpur on Saturday. PTI photo

Mukesh Ranjan
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, November 7

Exit polls for the Bihar assembly elections on Saturday appeared to have mirrored the crowd surge in favour of Mahagathbandha’s CM-designate Tejashwi Yadav, who had sought to galvanise the youth in particular with a promise of 10 lakh government jobs.

They, however, failed to project a decisive trend, except for India Today-Axis polls, in favour of either of the two prominent alliances, the NDA and Mahagathbandhan, which in a way suggested that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s development pitch during the campaign also found a good traction with the voters in the state. But in the past the exit polls, specifically in the context Bihar elections, have largely been found to be off the mark.

The Times Now-CVoter has given 116 to the NDA and a slight lead to the Mahagathbandhan with 120, as Chirag Paswan’s LJP will win one seat. The Republic TV-Jan Ki Baat has given 118 to 138 seats to the RJD-led alliance and 91-117 seats to the ruling NDA, as LJP to get five to eight seats. The TV9 Bharatvarsh gave 110-120 seats to NDA, 115-125 to Mahagathbandhan and 3-5 to LJP.

According to India Today Axis polls NDA to get 69-91, while Mahagathbandhan 139-161, LJP 3-5 and other 3-5.

The last of the three-phase elections in the state concluded today with a voting percentage of nearly 58 percent and the combined turnout for the total 243 assembly to be a little over 56 percent, which 2 percent higher than the 2015 assembly election.

According to one of the exit poll surveys it was revealed that the opposition alliance appeared quite popular among the young voters as it has a 12 percent edge over NDA among the voters in age group of 18-35. But the trend reversed in case of older voters. This is indicative of the fact that the new voters appeared to have no memory linkage to the so-called “Jungle Raj” of RJD’s 15 year of rule between 19190-2005, which the NDA campaigners trumpeted to the hilt.

The exit polls also indicate a tectonic shift from the national elections, which took place 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 Prasad was serving a jail sentence in Ranchi.

But in this campaign, Tejashwi Yadav 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. The polls also indicate that the BJP may get an upper hand over Nitish Kumar, who was repeatedly assured by an array of BJP leaders that he remained the coalition’s top face in Bihar.

Here are the exit polls:

India Today Axis-My Axis Poll

NDA-69-91

Mahagathbandhan-139-161

LJP-3-5

Others- 3-5

Today's Chanakya-CNN News18

NDA-55

Mahagathbandhan-180

Others-8

Times Now-CVoter polls

BJP-JDU (NDA)-116