Grand Alliance in clear majority: Poll panel trends

Patna, Nov 8: The Grand Alliance went well past the halfway mark, with the BJP led alliance placed a distant second, as counting for the votes cast in the Bihar assembly election entered the final phases on Sunday, showed trends in 231 constituencies put out by the Election Commission at 12.15 a.m.

The Election Commission of India said that the Grand Alliance was way ahead with leads in 158 constituencies, out of 243 seats in the Bihar assembly. The BJP-led alliance was leading in 63 seats.

Among the others, while the Communist Party of India (ML) (Liberation) was ahead in two seats, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) was in one and independents in seven places.

Trends in the percentage of votes polled showed that the BJP had a 25.5 percent share, while the RJD was next with 18.2 percent. The JDU and independents followed with 16.4 percent and 9.8 percent, respectively.

The millions of votes cast in the staggered five-phased election was held on Sunday.

The RJD and the JD-U fielded 101 candidates each and the Congress 41.

The BJP contested 160 seats and its allies the LJP 40, the RLSP 23 and the HAM 20 seats.

IANS