Exit polls after the final phase of the Bihar Assembly elections on Saturday predicted a clear victory for the Janata Dal (United)-Bharatiya Janata Party combine.
While the CNN-IBN-The Week post-poll study projected that the JD(U)-BJP alliance will sweep the polls with 185-201 seats, a Star- AC Nielson exit poll predicted that the Nitish Kumar-led National Democratic Alliance will get 150 seats.
An exit poll, conducted by CVoter, projected the JD(U)-BJP combine coming back to power in Bihar. It said the combine will get 142-54 seats.
The CNN-IBN-The Week post poll-study projection claimed that the NDA will emerge victorious with 185-201 seats out of the total 243 Assembly seats.
The CNN-IBN-The Week post-poll study projected the JD (U)-BJP combine emerging as the single largest alliance in Bihar with 46 per cent vote share in its kitty followed by the Rashtriya Janata Dal-Lok Jansakthi Party alliance at a distant 27 per cent and Congress at merely 9 per cent as the sixth and final phase of polling came to an end.
The Lalu Prasad-led RJD-LJP alliance was predicted to be gaining 22-32 seats while the Congress gain is put at between 6-12 seats.
Independents, the Left parties and others will end up with 9-19 seats, the CNN-IBN-The Week post-poll study projected.
The Star -AC Nielson exit poll predicted that the RJD-LJP combine will get 57 seats out of a total 243 with a loss of seven seats while the Congress will stand at 15 and others at 21.
The CVoter exit poll projected that the RJD-LJP alliance will remain at a distant second to the NDA with their tally ranging between 59 and 71 while the Congress, coming in third place, will get 12-18 seats.
According to the CNN-IBN-The Week post-poll study, JD (U) chief Nitish Kumar was way ahead of his rivals in popularity as the Chief Minister of the state.
Mr. Kumar was preferred as the Chief Minister by 54 per cent of voters as the man in the top office for a consecutive second term while Mr. Prasad and his wife and former Chief Minister Rabri Devi remained far behind him with only 28 per cent preferring “either of them”, the exit poll claimed.
Mr. Kumar’s popularity has been increasing over the last few years since 2004 reaching at all time high with 60 per cent in 2009.
However, either of the Prasads as the choice for the post of Chief Minister has not changed significantly in all these years and has stayed between 25-30 per cent as it was in the past, the study claimed.
The post-poll study claimed that not only Mr. Kumar but his government too was riding high in its popularity in Bihar with 60 per cent of voters suggesting that they want his government for a second term in the State.
Twenty per cent of the voters, however, wanted a change in government of the State.
The CNN-IBN-The Week post-poll study claimed that 78 per cent voters said that they were satisfied with the JD(U)-led NDA government while 19 per cent expressed dissatisfaction.
The CVoter exit poll claimed that Mr. Kumar has been able to translate his social engineering equations into votes with 42.9 per cent of Mahdalits and 49 per cent of most backward classes having voted in favour of NDA.
It also claimed that Mr. Kumar has been able to prevail over the upper caste votes.
