Bihar Election 2020: BJP claims victory before results were announced

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah tweeted on Tuesday night to thank the people of Bihar for "backing the NDA", before election results were declared. PM Modi said the NDA would "work for the balanced development of every person, every region" of the state.

Minutes earlier Amit Shah wrote, "Every section of Bihar has... backed the NDA's development agenda".

The two senior BJP leaders' tweet came when ruling NDA was only marginally ahead in counting ; the alliance was ahead in (or had won) 124 seats but the opposition was only trailing by 13 seats. There were 50 seats still undeclared. The opposition, led by Tejashwi Yadav's RJD, claimed it had won 119 seats but the JDU-BJP government had put pressure on election officials to delay the results and rework them in their favour.

Late on Tuesday evening, Rashtriya Janata Dal's Manoj Jha met the Election Commission officials, claiming that he did not "trust the administration". RJD also held a demonstration in Patna. "There are discrepancies. We expect justice from Election Commission," said Congress leader Akhilesh Singh.

"In almost 10 seats, the Nitish administration is delaying the count, not giving certificates to the winning candidates. Sitting in CM's house, Nitish Kumar and Sushil Modi are pressurizing the Principal Secretary to call all DMs (district Magistrates)and ROs (Returning Officers) to get a decision in favor of the nearest contested seats," the RJD said in a Hindi tweet.

In a second tweet, the party said, "This is a list of 119 seats where the Grand Alliance candidates have won after the completion of counting. The Returning Officer congratulated him for the victory, but now he is not giving the certificate saying that you have lost. They were also shown winning on the ECI website. Such loot will not work in a democracy".