Exit polls predict close fight in Bihar with edge to Nitish

Votes will be counted on November 08 in the tightly fought election

Exit polls at the end of five phased polling in Bihar assembly elections today predicted a close fight with majority of them giving an edge to the grand alliance of JDU-RJD-Congress over the BJP-led NDA grouping.

Polls on Times Now in association with C-Voter predicted 122 seats in a house of 243 to the grand alliance while News X predicted 130 to 140 seats for it. The two channels gave the BJP-led alliance 111 and 90 to 100 seats respectively.

India Today-Cicero poll predicted 113 to 127 seats for the NDA comprising BJP, LJP, HAM (Secular) and RLSP and 111 to 123 for the JDU-led alliance.

Hindi channel India TV forecast 112 to 132 seats for the JD-U led alliance and 101 to 121 for the NDA.

The Nitish Kumar-led alliance was predicted to get a simple majority of 120 to 124 by the News Nation channel, which predicted 115 to 119 seats for the rival alliance.

In the outgoing assembly, the JDU and BJP had contested elections and together and won a massive majority. The JDU had won 115 seats and BJP 91. The RJD had won 22 and Congress 04 when they contested on their own.

The JDU-BJP alliance broke in 2013 after Chief Minister Nitish Kumar announced that his party was walking out of NDA over the BJP's decision to anoint Narendra Modi as the chief of BJP's campaign committee for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

In the Parliament elections, the BJP won 22 of the 40 seats and its allies won nine. RJD and JDU had fought separately and won four and two seats respectively. Congress, which contested in alliance with RJD, had also won two seats while NCP one.