Counting begins for by-elections to 18 assembly seats today

Lalu Prasad Yadav’s Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal United (JD-U) had joined hands to take on their common enemy Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the state. On Aug 11, they had held their first rally together and were seen hugging each other at the event. 

The duo, both former chief ministers of Bihar, had parted ways twenty years ago but once again came together to jointly fight the by-polls in 10 Assembly seats.

Both the parties entered into a seat-sharing agreement along with the Congress in which both JD-U and RJD had decided to contest in four seats each leaving two to the Congress in Bihar.

According to early trends on Monday, the Lalu-Nitish mega alliance is ahead in four out of 10 Assembly seats in Bihar. The BJP-LJP alliance is leading in six seats in the state.

The BJP had won 32 of the 40 Lok Sabha seats in the state in this year’s Lok Sabha election. It is contesting the by-election in nine seats leaving only one to its ally Ramvilas Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party (LJP). 

The by-elections in Bihar are being seen as the semi-finals ahead of the high-voltage state Assembly polls scheduled next year.

It is advantage for the Congress going by the early trends in Karnataka as they are ahead in two of the three seats for which by-elections were held.

On the other hand, the BJP, under the leadership of chief minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan, is ahead in all three seats in Madhya Pradesh. In Punjab, the Congress and Akali Dal are ahead in one seat each.