Election Commission to address virtual press conference at 1:30 pm on counting trends

The Election Commission of India will address a virtual press conference on November 10 at 1:30pm IST. Deputy Election Commissioners Sudeep Jain, Chandrabhushan Kumar, and Ashish Kundra will brief the media virtually on current counting trends.

The counting of votes for the Bihar election is still underway and so far incumbent Chief Minister Nitish Kumar-led NDA alliance is leading the election after crossing the halfway mark of 122 Assembly seats. The ECI trends for 238 of 243 seats show the NDA is leading on 125 seats with the BJP leading in 70 seats, JDU in 48 seats, VIP in 6 seats and HAM in 1 seat.

Also read: Bihar election 2020 results: 10 things to know about the counting of votes

The exit polls earlier projected a win for the RJD-led Mahagathbandhan or Grand Alliance in the state. However, Mahagathbandhan is lagging behind the NDA with 101 seats.

Also read: Bihar Election Results: As BJP-led NDA takes clear lead, Twitterati allege EVM tampering

Officials said trends and declaration of results might be prolonged in comparison to last time's assembly elections as polling stations have gone up by 45% in order to ensure safety precautions and confirm social distancing because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The counting of votes is also going on for Madhya Pradesh bypolls held for 28 Assembly seats. The results will be an indicator of the effect of the Jyotiraditya Scindia factor in the changed political scenario in the state. The ruling BJP needs to win at least eight of these 28 seats to attain a simple majority in the 230-member Assembly, whose effective strength is 229.

Also read: BJP takes lead in Madhya Pradesh by-election