Bihar: Close only counts in horseshoes- aproverb which emerged true in the case of and Tejashwi Yadav’s Mahagathbandhan which missed the mark by a razor thin difference in vote share.  Bihar elections 2020 saw a thrilling battle between Nitish Kumar-led NDA and Mahagathbandhan, with NDA emerging victorious after what can be said a bruising battle.

In terms of vote-share, the difference between NDA and Grand Alliance was literally very thin.  The closeness of the race is illustrated by the fact that both NDA and MGB managed to wrest 37 percent vote share each.  The difference is less than 1 % , as the NDA got 37.3% and the MGB 37.2%, media reports said.

The overall difference in votes polled by the ruling NDA and the opposition alliance of the Rashtriya Janata Dal, the Congress and the Left was just 0.2 per cent, data shows.

Singularly, the RJD which became the party with the highest number of seats with a haul of 75 seats, polled 96,63,584 votes, while its main competition BJP got  82,01,298 votes.

An extremely close contest was seen on 40 seats where the victory margin was less than 3,500 votes. Many of these recorded a margin of less than 1000 votes.

Despite the slump in numbers, Nitish Kumar, who was declared the NDA's Chief Ministerial candidate by the BJP brass, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party chief J.P. Nadda, is set to take over the reins of the government.

The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) secured 125 seats and crossed magic mark of 122 seats in the 243-member house, surging ahead of the key opposition Grand Alliance known as Mahagathbandhan that could manage 110 seats even after the Tejashwi Yadav-led Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) emerged as the single largest party with 75 seats.