BJP, allies surging ahead in Bihar

Riding on the "Modi wave", BJP and its allies are marching ahead in Bihar winning four of the six Lok Sabha seats for which results are declared so far.
The party is ahead in 18 seats where counting is in an advanced stage, while its ally LJP is leading in 6 seats and RLSP in 3 seats, EC sources said.
BJP has won Sasaram (SC), drubbing Speaker Meira Kumar, and Begusarai seats. Congress retained minority-dominated Kisanganj seat and ruling JD(U) of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has annexed Purnea seat from BJP.
In Arrah, BJP candidate former Union Home Secretary R K Singh defeated his nearest RJD rival Bhagwan Singh Kushwaha by 1,35,870 votes.

In West Champaran, filmmaker Prakash Jha fighting on JD(U) ticket lost to BJP's Sanjay Jaiswal by 1,10,254 votes.
Maulana Asrarul Haque of Congress won the Kisanganj parliamentary seat by a margin of 1,94,612 votes, defeating BJP's Dilip Kumar Jaiswal.

Here, Akhtarul Iman of JD(U) bagged 55,822 votes. Iman had withdrawn from the contest, but he did so after the expiry of the deadline and his nomination papers were later found to be valid.
In one of the major upheavals in the state, Speaker of the outgoing Lok Sabha Meira Kumar lost in her home turf Sasaram to BJP's Chhedi Paswan by 63,327 votes.

Paswan bagged 3,66,087 votes to defeat Kumar, who secured 3,02,760 votes. JD(U)'s K P Ramaiah was third with 93,310 votes.
BJP's Bhola Singh won Begusarai seat, defeating his nearest RJD rival Mohammad Tanvir Hassan by 58,335 votes.
In Purnea, JD(U) candidate Santosh Kumar defeated BJP's Uday Singh by 1,16,69 votes. Congress nominee Amarnath Tiwari emerged third with 1,24,344 votes.
Actor-politician Shatrughan Sinha contesting on BJP ticket is maintaining a big lead of over 1.80 lakh votes over Congress' Kunal Singh in his native Patna Sahib.