New Delhi: The Election Commission has said that the final results for the 243-member Bihar Assembly seats are expected to be out only late on Tuesday tonight.

The poll panel said significant ground was yet to be covered as only 1 crore of the total 4.10 crore votes had been counted after more than five hours.

"Earlier, there used to be 25-26 rounds of counting, but this time it went up to around 35 rounds at 38 locations. At some assembly constituencies, the rounds differ. The counting will continue till late night as the number of polling booths has also increased to 1.06 lakh compared to 65,000 in 2015, and accordingly increased EVMs," said Deputy Election Commissioner Chandra Bhushan.

Bhushan said there has been 63 per cent increase in the number of polling booths this year in view of the Covid-19 requirements and that the counting is happening at 55 locations. "Due to the coronavirus, polling officers at each polling booth has been limited to 1,000-1500."

The counting process so far from all across Bihar has been free of glitches, Bhushan said.

The Commission made this announcement at a press conference this afternoon addressed by Deputy Election Commissioners Sudeep Jain, Chandra Bhushan Kumar and Ashish Kundra.

The latest trends show the NDA is ahead of the RJD-led Grand Alliance known as Mahagathbandhan, crossing the half-way mark of 122 seats needed to secure majority in Bihar Assembly.

While there is still time for the final results, one thing is clear - the BJP that had remained a junior partner in the NDA in Bihar so far, may end up having the upper hand.

Significantly, the Grand Alliance's partner left parties appear to have bettered their record with the current trend indicating 19 cumulative seats for the combine of Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) (Liberation) (13 seats) and three seats each for the Communist Party of India (CPI) and the Communist Party of India (Marxist).

Chirag Paswan's Lok Janshakti Party appears to have declined with lead in just one one seat compared to last time's two seats. The LJP and other smaller parties may hold the key to government formation if the NDA falls short of the half-way mark.

Most exit polls had given the RJD-Congress-Left alliance a clear edge over the JD(U)-BJP coalition and has predicted that the ruling government was on its way out.

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