Written by Niyati Kanotra, a first-year undergraduate student.

Nitish Kumar has been elected as the Chief Minister of Bihar, and he also made history as he took oath in New Delhi for the 7^th time to become the longest-serving Chief Minister of the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA). The Shiv Sena was quoted saying “The leadership of Bihar has finally passed into the hands of the Bharatiya Janata Party. Nitish Kumar will become the Chief Minister. BJP achieved a big victory in Bihar.” Nitish Kumar promised his citizens that the focus of the new government would be job creation by promoting startups, skill development centres, and soft loans for women to start their own business. Prime Minister Narendra Modi also congratulated Nitish Kumar on his huge victory.

About the Bihar elections

The much-awaited Bihar elections started off on the 10^th November at 8 am, amidst a pandemic with enthusiastic voters waiting for their votes to be polled.

The elections were held in three phases, starting from October till November. 71 constituencies in 16 districts voted in Phase 1, 94 constituencies in 17 districts voted in Phase 2 and 78 constituencies in 15 districts went to polls in Phase 3. The main candidates who stood in the election were Janata Dal United’s Nitish Kumar, Rashtriya Janata Dal’s chief ministerial candidate Tejashwi Yadav who was also the youngest candidate, and Lok Janshakti Party’s Chirag Paswan.

Bihar election was marked as the biggest election to be held globally amid an ongoing pandemic with one crore eligible voters. This year the number of votes was higher by 57 percent, as compared to 2015. The voting process was done with the help of EVMS and postal ballots. Proper precautions were taken during voting, social distancing was maintained, the election was held in 3 phases instead of the usual 5, an extra one hour was given to people who were quarantined by the election commission, face masks were made compulsory, sanitizers were made available and virtual rallies gained a lot of momentum.

An aggregate of opinion polls showed that the opposition would be winning 128 of Bihar’s 243 seats and the NDA, 99 and LJP were likely to win six seats. The result was announced on 10^th November and The NDA buoyed by an impressive performance by the BJP secured 125 seats. A tough fight was given to the saffron alliance by the RJD-led Grand Alliance making it the most closely fought elections seen in Indian political history. The Rashtriya Janata Dal won 76 seats following BJP which secured 74 seats.  The Tejashwi Yadav-led alliance won 110 seats and Congress failed to secure victory on the 19 seats of the 70 it contested on. All in all, the three left parties together won 16 of the 29 seats they contested.

With Nitish Kumar’s win, the hope is that party sticks to its motives and the promises it has guaranteed to its voters and contributes towards benefitting the state, providing opportunities, and enriching its resources.

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