No exit for Nitish

New Delhi: Despite many twists and turns, the mandate of Bihar Assembly election went in favour of the NDA that secured the return of Nitish Kumar as Bihar's next Chief Minister as the ruling alliance has won 119 seats and leading on 6 seats, which makes its total tally of 125 seats – just three seats above from the required number of 122 seats.

However, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) performed little better in the absence of its mentor Lalu Prasad Yadav and repeated the 2015 script by emerging as the single largest party in the state. The RJD was slated to win 75 seats.

The total tally of Grand Alliance led by RJD stood at 110, which includes 19 seats of Congress and 16 seats of Left parties. The vote share of RJD is 23.1 per cent.

It's must to mention that the strategy of BJP to get out from the shadow of Janata Dal-United too worked well and the saffron party emerged as second largest party by winning 74 seats with a vote share of 19.4 per cent despite contesting five lesser seats than JD(U). The JD(U) contested on 115 seats, while BJP had fielded its candidates on 110 seats.

The JD(U) faced a huge loss due to LJP's move to field its candidates against JD(U) nominees as Nitish Kumar's party won just 43 seats. As BJP won more seats than JD(U), speculations were rife that Nitish Kumar may be replaced by any BJP leader.

Earlier in the day, Union Home Minister Amit Shah dialled Chief Minister Nitish Kumar as the two leaders talked about the Bihar poll results and trends.

The results of Bihar Assembly election also witnessed a new rise of Left parties as it has won 16 seats out of 29 seats offered in the Grand Alliance, while Congress that has contested on 70 seats has won just 19 seats. The performance of Congress is much poorer than the previous Assembly election of 2015.

As per political commentators, the NDA may face tough challenge in meeting the political aspirations of small parties like Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP), which has won just four seats out of 11 seats it contested and former CM Jitan Ram Manjhi's party that has won four seats.

Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi's AIMIM emerged as a surprise package, winning five seats. It appears that Owaisi's party is making significant inroads in the Seemanchal region which has a large presence of Muslim voters.

As per trends, the LJP appeared to have contributed its bit to damage the prospects of JD(U) in at least 30 seats. The LJP has won just one seat.

The Plurals Party, which was led by Pushpam Priya Choudhary, failed to win any seat.

Senior Bihar minister Vijendra Prasad Yadav of JD(U) won from Supual, and Niraj Singh Babloo of the BJP, a cousin of actor Sushant Singh Rajput, whose mysterious death became an election issue, retained the Chhatapur seat.

Tejashwi Yadav has won from Raghopur defeating Satish Kumar of the BJP and his elder brother Tej Pratap Yadav also won from Hasanpur.

State Assembly speaker Vijay Kumar Chaudhary has won from Sarairanjan in Samastipur district, while Education Minister Krishna Nandan Prasad Verma (Jehanabad) lost his seat.

Ace former shooter and Commonwealth gold medalist Shreyasi Singh of BJP won from Jamui, but veteran socialist leader Sharad Yadav's daughter Subhashini has lost from Bihariganj.