It is a face-off between the NDA (BJP, LJP, HAM) vs Grand alliance (JDU, RJD, Congress). The number of seats the parties are contesting for is 243. The magic number for simple majority is 122.
Former Nitish loyalist who held the CM’s post for a short period, CM Jitan Ram Majhi’s HAM and Asaduddin Owaisi’s MIM maybe crucial only in select seats.
The voter-turnout was considered high at 57%. If the grand alliance wins, Nitish will be the CM for the 3rd time, and about 10 other CMs have achieved this feat.
This election result is also important as Bihar has 16 Rajya Sabha seats and BJP does not have a majority in Rajya Sabha.
Here are some of the important candidates:
Akhtarul Iman (AIMIM) – Kochadhaman
Dr. C.N. Gupta (BJP) - Chapra
Arjit Shashwat Choubey (BJP)- Bhagalpur
Kishor Kumar (BJP) - Supaul
Lalit Kumar Yadav (RJD) - Darbhanga Rural
Om Prakash Kheria (RJD) - Darbhanga
Sanjay Saraogi (BJP) - Darbhanga
Anirudh Prasad Urf Sadhu Yadav (Garib Janta Dal (Secular)) - Barauli
Subash Singh (BJP) - Gopalganj
Vyas Deo Prasad (BJP) - Siwan
Tej Pratap Yadav (RJD) - Mahua
Tejashwi Prasad Yadav (RJD) - Raghopur
Ram Vilash Paswan (RJD) - Pirpainti
Arjit Shashwat Choubey (BJP) - Bhagalpur
Pappu Yadav (SP) - Jamalpur
Arun Kumar (LJP) - Harnaut
Nand Kishore Yadav (BJP) - Patna Sahib
Dadan Yadav (JD(U)) - Dumraon
Ram Bihari Singh (RLSP) - Dumraon
Anand Bhushan Pandey (BJP) - Bhabua
Jai Kumar Singh (JD(U)) - Dinara
Subedar Das (RJD) - Makhdumpur
Arun Kumar (BIP) - Makhdumpur
Jitan Ram Manjhi (HAM(S)) - Makhdumpur
Ramadhar Singh (BJP) - Aurangabad
Uday Naraian Choudhary (JD(U)) - Imamganj
Prem Kumar (BJP) - Gaya Town
Important face-offs, compiled by Indian Express
At Imamganj (SC), Speaker Uday Narayan Chaudhary of JD(U) takes on Jitan Ram Manjhi.
In Makhdumpur, Manjhi faces RJD’s Subedar Singh.
Congress vs BJP: Congress faces BJP heavyweights in a number of urban seats, including Bankipore and Kumhrar, which have had BJP MLAs for more than two decades, and Gaya Town from where Prem Kumar is a long-time winner.
Assembly leaders: Congress Legislature Party leader Sadanand Singh will contest from Kahalgao.
His RJD counterpart Abdul Bari Siddiqui will contest from Alinagar in Darbhanga.
Against BJP veteran Nand Kishore Yadav, Leader of the Opposition, the contestant is RJD’s Santosh Mehta.
If BJP fails it will be direct failure for Modi and the BJP top brass as they campaigned very strongly with Modi addressing around a score of rallies himself. This might be a referendum on his government too.
Results in 2010
These were the party-wise results in 2010, when the BJP and JD (U) contested in an alliance.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) - 91
Lok Jan Shakti Party (LJP) - 3
Communist Party of India (CPI) - 1
Indian National Congress (INC) - 4
Janata Dal (United), JD (U) - 115
Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) - 22
Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) - 1
Independent (IND) 6
Picture credits
By myself (Own work) [CC BY-SA 2.5 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5)], via Wikimedia Commons
Nitish Kumar/ Facebook