Bihar Assembly Election: Why final numbers will be out by late midnight?

Patna : The final results of the Bihar Assembly Election will be released by late midnight on Tuesday, said the Election Commission. Generally, people get a clear picture of Vidhan Sabha elections results by noon, but this time the process of vote counting is getting delayed due to the increased number of polling booths, to ensure adherence to social distancing measures in view of the pandemic.

As per latest trends, BJP has been emerging out as the single largest party for the first time in Bihar Assembly Elections. NDA is running ahead in 130 seats while the Mahagathbandhan is leading on 101 seats.

In the 2015 Bihar Assembly election, there were 73,000 polling booths. However, this election, it went up to 1,06,515. “There were 63% increase in poll booths this time which means more EVMs will be counted, counting tables limited. Slightly more than 1 crore votes have been counted in Bihar which means that there is significant ground to be covered yet”, said Ashish Kundra, Deputy Election Commissioner.

Besides, there used to 25-26 rounds of counting, but this time it can go up to 35 rounds. “In some Assembly Constituencies (ACs) there are fewer polling stations, counting will conclude in 24-25 rounds. But we also have some ACs, where there will be 50-51 rounds. On average, we will have 30-35 rounds of counting per AC,” he added.

The current vote difference is marginal in several constituencies. In some seats, the difference is less than 50 votes. In such a situation, everyone is keenly watching the results of these seats.