Bihar Election 2020 Results: Resurgence of the Left with 16 seats in Bihar

LIVE updates of the Bihar Assembly election result 2020. RJD-led Mahagathbandhan is taking on the BJP-JDU’s NDA alliance

The Bihar election results marked the resurgence of the Left in the state with the three Left parties part of the Mahagathbandhan ending up with 16 of the 29 seats they contested.

The tally of the three parties - CPI (M-L), CPM and CPI is three short of the Congress, the other Mahagathbandhan ally that bagged 19 of the 70 seats it contested. The Left parties have, in fact, showed highest strike rate, 55.1 percent, among all parties, poll analysts said.

The CPI (M-L), the biggest left party in Bihar, was the best among the three bagging 12 of the 19 seats it contested. The CPM won two of the four seats it contested while the CPI won two of the six seats it contested, the poll panel data said.

Poll officials said the counting process may take a little longer because more EVMs machine were used due to COVID-19 pandemic.

"It looks like Left has helped the MGB while Congress has emerged as a weak point within the MGB," Ajoy Bose, author and columnist told a news channel.

In the 2015 elections, CPI (M-L) was the only Left party that won seats -- three of the 98 it contested. It won six seats in 2000, seven in the February 2005 Assembly polls, and five in the elections held in October 2005. It could not win any seat in the 2010 elections when the NDA won 206 of 243 seats.

This time, the Left parties contested elections as part of the Grand Alliance comprising the RJD and the Congress.  The CPM and CPI had earlier contested elections with Lalu Prasad Yadav’s RJD, the CPI (M-L) became an alliance partner led by RJD for the first time, however.

The Grand Alliance or the Mahagathbandhan challenged the ruling NDA comprising JD-U and the BJP this election.

The NDA is set to form the next government in Bihar by winning the election bagging 125 seats in the 243-member house.The BJP won 74, JDU  43, VIP 4, and HAM 4 seats.

The Mahagathbandhan won 110 seats with the Rashtriya Janata Dal emerging as the single-largest party with 75 seats.

Towards the last rounds of vote counting, the CPI (M-L) sought a recount on three assembly seats in Bihar where the party alleges it observed "some worrying violations of counting norms".

"We urgently seek a recount of votes in the Bhorey, Arrah and Daraundha Assembly constituencies of Bihar. On all three of these seats, CPIML candidates have been shown to be defeated in very narrow margins, following some worrying violations of counting norms," Kavita Krishnan, a CPI-ML (Liberation) politburo member, said in a missive to the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC).