Advantage Mahagathbandhan: Exit polls

Exit polls at the end of the fifth and final phase of polling for the 243-seat Bihar assembly on Thursday indicated an advantage to the Mahagathbandhan over the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), while the Chanakya has predicted otherwise.

Leading news channels and dailies have given an edge to the grand alliance with 120-140 over the NDA with 111-123 seats, while others are likely to get 4-8 seats.

India Today TV has predicted 111-123 seats to the Mahagathbandhan, 113-127 to the BJP, while others may emerge victorious on 4-8 seats India Today-Cicero exit polls gave Mahagathbandhan 117 seats, NDA 120, and others 6.

India TV-C Voter exit polls gave NDA 111 seats, Mahagathbandhan 122, while others were slated to get 10 seats.

News X-CNX predicted 130-140 seats to Mahagathbandhan while it gave NDA get 90-100 and others likely to get 13-23 seats.

Times Now-C Voter exit polls predicted the JD (U)-RJD-Congress Mahagathbandhan to win 122 seats, with a vote share of 42 percent, which is exactly the majority-way mark; while the BJP-led NDA is projected to win 111 seats with 41 percent of votes; and other parties including Independent candidates will win 10 seats with a 17 percent vote share.

News Nation exit poll gave NDA 115-119 seats, 120-124 seats to C, and others likely to get 3-5 seats.

ABP News exit poll gave 130 seats to Mahagathbandhan, 108 to the NDA and 5 to others.

News 24-Today's Chanakya predicted (+/-11) 155 seats; (+/-9) 83 to Mahagathbandhan and others (+/-3) 5.

The BJP has claimed that it will win two-third majority on November 8. "We have no doubt that we are going to win with 2/3rd majority in Bihar," said BJP leader Shahnawaz Hussain.

However, rubbishing Hussain's claim, RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav claimed that the Mahagathbandhan would win at least 190 seats.

"The people of Bihar took a serious note of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's abusing them and calling me 'shaitan'", said Lalu.

Overall, the Bihar Assembly polls recorded an impressive 56.8 percent turnout.