Reposing their undiminished trust in Nitish Kumar, fifth time in a row since 2005, the people of Bihar, especially its women who came out in large numbers to vote, handed a mammoth four-fifth majority to the NDA, in an election that re-established JD(U)’s preeminent position in the state politics, making it a natural claimant for the chief ministership.

For the BJP too, the results of the Friday counting for 243 seats in the state Assembly are a watershed moment in its long-drawn effort to find parity with JD(U), which bagged 85 seats, in Bihar. Registering its best-ever performance, the saffron outfit emerged for the first time as the single largest party in the state Assembly, to end the day with 89 seats with an almost 90% strike rate. Only the 12 of the 101 candidates it fielded lost

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