Bow to people's mandate, thankful to PM for support: Nitish Kumar on Bihar win

Even as Kumar is set to return as the Chief Minister of the state but his party managed to get just 43 seats of the 122 contested, where its tally dropped from 71 in the previous election in 2015.

In a Hindi tweet, which was his first reaction after the BJP-dominated victory, Kumar on Wednesday evening wrote: "The people decide. I bow to them for giving the NDA a majority. I am also grateful for the support from PM Modi."

Nitish Kumar posted his tweet at a time when the BJP celebrated the Bihar win in a grand event in Delhi at the party's headquarters featuring PM Modi and the party's top leaders.

In a highly contentious and nail-biting vote count which went on for more than 15 hours on Tuesday, the NDA (led by BJP and Nitish Kumar's JD-U) managed to bag 125 seats in the Bihar Assembly elections, two more than the halfway mark, as opposed to Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD)-led Mahagathbandhan's 110 seats.

While the JD(U) could win only 43 seats, it was BJP's 74 seats along with a few from smaller allies that took the alliance to the majority mark.

However, the Bihar unit of BJP earlier in the day cleared that Nitish Kumar will be the next Chief Minister of the state despite the saffron party emerging as the best performer in the NDA.

"Nitishji (Nitish Kumar) will remain Chief Minister as it was our commitment. There is no confusion on this," Bihar Deputy CM and BJP leader, Sushil Modi told NDTV.

Modi said BJP and JD(U) are equal partners in the NDA irrespective of the seats the two parties have won.

Kumar, who is set to become the CM for the fifth term, has already announced the 2020 polls would be his last in his long political career.