JD (U)-BJP alliance claims they will win Bihar polls |
The ruling coalition of Janata Dal (United) and the Bharatiya Janata Party is likely to win comfortably in the upcoming Bihar Assembly elections even though surveys show that present Chief Minister Nitish Kumar`s popularity has taken a big dip. An opinion poll conducted by India Today-CSDS gave the NDA 133 to 143 seats out of 243 as against the RJD-Congress-Left Grand Alliance`s 89-98 seats. The Chirag Paswan-led LJP, which is contesting out of the NDA fold, is likely to win 2-6 seats while others may grab 6-10 seats. If compared with the current seats, the NDA alliance will be improving its seats from 125 while the Opposition alliance may see a decline from 100. The opinion polls showed that in terms of vote share, the NDA would garner 38% as against 43% it polled in 2015 Assembly polls. In 2015, JD(U) was with RJD and Congress but in 2017 split with the Grand Alliance to form the government with BJP support. The vote share of Grand Alliance is likely to increase this time to 32% this time from 29% in the previous Assembly polls and 25% in the Lok Sabha polls. The polls also showed a dip in the popularity of Nitish Kumar, who is the chief minister`s face of the NDA. While Kumar clocked a popularity of 40% in 2015, it has come down to 31% this time.
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