Patna:
Big smiles in the JD(U)-BJP camp and early credit from the Congress tell the story. Nitish Kumar will be the Chief Minister of Bihar again, and with a huge majority.
Trends are now available for most of the 243 seats in the Bihar Assembly and show the JD(U)-BJP combine surging ahead. The JD(U) has added about 10 extra seats to its kitty, but the junior partner in the state, the BJP, has made the more major gains - about 21 seats.
Together, the partners are already leading in 170 seats and the NDTV forecast at this time is 170-180 seats for them. Congress spokesperson Jayanti Natrajan said "all credit to Nitish Kumar".
(Read: All credit to Nitish for his success: Congress)The RJD-LJP combine is leading in 46 seats, down from 64 last time, the Congress is leading in 5 seats and others, including the BSP and Independents, are leading in 15.
The NDTV Forecast at this time is 170-180 seats for JD-U, BJP alliance, 44-55 seats for the RJD- LJP alliance and about 10-15 seats for the Congress. The NDA had won 143 seats in 2005, Lalu Yadav had 64 seats and the Congress had won 9.
The Bihar elections were held in six phases and have been closely watched both because there were new emerging voting trends in the state and because it was a clash of two major leaders, both lobbying hard to maintain their position. The Chief Election Commissioner SY Quraishi described it as the "most peaceful election ever."
Among the most interesting voting trends was the fact that more women turned out to vote than men did - Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's campaign overtly wooed women voters.
This is part of Nitish Kumar's positioning himself as the leader of the New Age in Bihar - better law and order, improved administration and a new influx of industry. Lalu Prasad Yadav, on the other hand, has had his hopes pinned on replicating his former success that gave him 15 years of power in the state.
The election saw a war of words. Top leaders from both sides aggressively attacked each other at rallies. There were some startling statements made, senior leaders sometimes hitting below the belt. And even on the eve of the result, Nitish Kumar called Lalu Prasad Yadav a tyrant while Lalu said the present government was the embodiment of evil omen.
In the build-up to counting, Nitish Kumar has been described as quietly confident. Lalu was most visibly upset at exit and opinion poll results which projected that Kumar would sweep the elections.
For the BJP, Nitish Kumar's partner, these election results could mean more than just coming back to rule a state jointly. Kumar fought these elections on his own terms, even keeping the BJP's star campaigner Narendra Modi out. A big victory on the issue of administration could see power equations between the partners change even more. (
Read: BJP on whether Narendra Modi Will attend swearing-in)