Independent candidate Jyoti Singh, wife of Bhojpuri actor Pawan Singh, is trailing by over 43,000 votes and is in the third position in Karakat Assembly constituency in Bihar as of 5 pm.
After 25 rounds of counting (6 more to go), Jyoti Singh secured 18,578 votes, trailing by 43,854 votes against Arung Singh of the CPI (M-L) Liberation party, who is in the lead position. Trailing him by a little over a thousand votes is Mahabali Singh of the JDU.
The ruling BJP-led National Democratic Alliance, which includes Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's JDU, is headed for a landslide win in Bihar, sending the Opposition into a tailspin. The NDA has crossed the 200-mark in the 243-seat assembly.
The high-profile Karakat seat saw a multi-cornered contest among JDU's Mahabali Singh, CPI(ML)'s Arun Singh, Jan Suraaj's Yogendra Singh.
Jyoti Singh's decision to contest the polls as an Independent came days after she met with election strategist-turned politician Prashant Kishor. No details of the meeting, however, were available.
In the lead-up to the polls, Jyoti Singh had accused her husband, Pawan, of infidelity, and there was an open fight over who would contest.
Pawan Singh, who was dropped by the BJP last year due to his controversial image, withdrew from the polls, underlining he was a "true soldier" of the BJP.
Voting for the Karakat Assembly seat took place on November 11, alongside constituencies like Chenari, Sasaram, Kargahar, Dinara, Nokha, and Dehri in Rohtas district.
