The Bihar Assembly election results did end on a photo finish note with some candidates winning with thin margins, and the losing candidates crying foul.
After the declaration of the results, there were eight candidates who won the election with very narrow margins.
Who are These 8 Candidates?
In a nail-biting finish in Hilsa, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) candidate Shakti Singh Yadav lost the election to JD(U) candidate Krishna Murari Sharan by just 12 votes. Yadav polled 61,836 votes, while Sharan got 61,848 votes.
From Bachhwara, Surendra Mehta of the BJP defeated Awadesh Rai of the Communist Party of India with a margin of 484 votes.
Suryakant Paswan of the CPI defeated Ram Shankar Paswan of the BJP with a margin of 777 votes in the Bakhri seat.
Sudarshan Kumar of the JD(U) defeated Gajanand Shahi of the Congress from the Barbigha seat with margin of just 113 votes.
Sunil Kumar of the JD(U) defeated Jitendra Paswan of the CPI (M-L) with a margin of 462 seats from the Bhorey seat.
Raj Kumar Singh of the LJP defeated Narendra Singh alias Bogo Singh of JD(U) with a margin of 333 votes in Matihani.
Sudhakar Singh of the RJD defeated Ambika Singh of the BSP with margin of 189 votes in Ramgarh.
Anil Sahani of the RJD defeated Kedar Gupta of the BJP with margin of 712 votes in the Kurhani seat.
RJD is Single-Largest Party, Dent to JD(U)
The Election Commission of India (ECI) declared the final result around 4 am, with the NDA bagging 125 seats, just three more than the majority mark of 122. The Mahagathbandhan managed to obtain 110 seats, the AIMIM 5, BSP one, LJP one, and an Independent also bagged one seat.
While the RJD was the single-largest party, the BJP emerged as the largest party within the NDA with 74 seats, and it is expected to play a bigger role in the next government in Bihar.
The JD(U), meanwhile, suffered a significant dent in this election. In 2015, it had managed to obtain 71 seats, but this time, it secured only 43 seats.
Analysts says the LJP played the role of “vote katwa (Vote cutter)“ in this election. The LJP had fielded candidates against the JD(U), where the latter was in direct fight with the Mahagathbandhan. It had hardly put any candidates on the seats where BJP was contesting.
Earlier on Tuesday night, the RJD alleged that Nitish Kumar applied pressure upon the returning officers over the counting. Its leader Manoj Jha gave a complaint to the EC about the Grand Alliance candidates being wrongfully defeated through cheating.
The poor performance of the Congress is a setback for the Mahagathbandhan in Bihar. It has contested on 70 seats and managed to bag just 19.
(This story has been edited for clarity.)
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