Nitish Kumar’s alliance heads for victory in Bihar (Second Lead)

PATNA - Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s ruling alliance seemed headed for victory in assembly elections, with its candidates far ahead in 65 of the 89 seats where early trends were available.

Exit polls have predicted a clear win for Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal-United (JD-U) and its ally the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which took office in 2005.

The main opposition combine of Lalu Prasad’s Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Ram Vilas Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) were a poor second across the state.

Election officials said the RJD and LJP appeared to be performing poorly even in some of their known strongholds.

The BJP said in New Delhi that the ruling alliance was poised for an emphatic win.

“The JD-U and BJP are headed for a historic victory,” BJP spokesman Prakash Javadekar said in New Delhi. “People are voting for an alliance that brought development as well as law and order to Bihar.”

He said the people had clearly voted against the RJD’s “15 years of jungle raj” - referring to the long rule of Lalu Prasad and his wife Rabri Devi.

Candidates of the Congress, a party which in recent decades has become an also-ran in Bihar, were ahead in three seats, the officials said.

Former chief minister Rabri Devi was trailing in one of the two constituencies from where she contested.

More than half of over 55 million electorate in Bihar voted from Oct 21 and Nov 20 to elect a new 243-member assembly.