Bihar Assembly election: Two latest exit polls point to NDA win

New Delhi: Two fresh exit polls on Wednesday pointed to an NDA victory in Bihar with Axis My India showing a clear edge for the ruling alliance and Today’s Chanakya forecasting a big win for it over the Mahagathbandhan.

Both the exit polls forecast a disappointing electoral debut for Prashant Kishor’s Jan Suraaj.

The Axis My India Exit Poll predicted that the NDA would be ahead of the Mahagathbandhan in Bihar but the RJD would emerge as the single-largest party when results for the Assembly polls are announced on Friday.

Axis My India predicted the NDA to win between 121-141 seats, and the Mahagathbandhan 98-118 seats.

It gave 0-2 seats to the Jan Suraaj.

Today’s Chanakya forecast that while the BJP and its allies would get 160 seats (with a plus-minus margin of error of 12 seats), the RJD and its allies would bag 77 seats (with a plus-minus margin of error of 12 seats).

It forecast that the BJP and its allies would bag 44 per cent (plus-minus 3 per cent) vote share and the RJD and its allies would get 38 per cent (plus-minus 3 pr cent) votes.

The projections come a day after all major exit polls predicted a return of the NDA government in Bihar with a big victory over the Mahagathbandhan.

All exit polls have unanimously forecast a poor electoral debut for Prashant Kishor’s Jan Suraaj.

In its party-wise break-up, Axis My India predicted that the RJD would be the single-largest party getting between 67-76 seats, followed by the JD(U) at 56-62 seats, BJP 50-56 seats, Congress 17-21 seats, Vikassheel Insaan Party 3-5 seats, and Left parties 10-14 seats.

According to the exit poll, the NDA would get a vote share percentage of 43 per cent, Mahagathbandhan 41 per cent, and the Jan Suraaj 4 per cent.

It also claimed that while 34 per cent people want to see RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav as the chief minister, 22 per cent want incumbent Nitish Kumar (JD-U) to remain at the helm.

The exit poll also gave a gender-wise break-up of vote share. It projected that while the NDA would get 41 per cent male and 45 per cent female votes, the Mahagathbandhan would get 42 per cent male and 40 per cent female votes.