Exit polls predict neck and neck contest; give slight edge to Grand Alliance

Five phases. 243 seats. 6.68 crore voters. And 3,450 candidates in the fray. That's Bihar elections in numbers. However, the only numbers that matter now is who wins how many seats.

Even as we wait for the results, which will be declared on 8 November, several exit polls have already made their predictions.

Out of seven exit polls, five have given the Grand Alliance an edge over the BJP led NDA. However, the competition is neck to neck.

Apart from these bigger players, there are also smaller players. Asaduddin Owaisi's MIM, Sharad Pawar's NCP and Mayawati's BSP have also contested on a number of seats. The presence of these smaller players, as per the exit poll results, had negligible impact.

Here's what the exit polls say:

Times Now's C Voter exit Polls

Grand Alliance just hits the mid-way mark, according to the poll, while being comfortably ahead of BJP's 111 seats. In terms of vote share, Grand Alliance bags 42 per cent of the vote share and the BJP led NDA is comes a close second with 41 per cents.

BJP+ -- 111

JDU+-- 122

Others-- 10

Total -- 243

India Today- ITG Cicero Survey

This survey shows a neck to neck contest between the two main players, while giving a slight edge to NDA. According to the exit poll, Grand Alliance gets 40 per cent of the vote share while NDA gets 41 per cent.

BJP+ -- 113- 127

JDU+ -- 111- 123

Others -- 4-8

Total -- 243

News X-CNX

CNX predicts a comfortable victory for the Grand Alliance.

BJP+--90-100

JDU+--130-140

Others--13-23

India TV-CVoter

Another neck-to neck prediction with the Grand Alliance getting a slight edge.

BJP+ -- 101-121

JDU+ -- 112-124

Others -- 6-14

Chanakya

Chanakya's predictions are drastically different from the rest of the exit polls. It gives BJP a thumping majority of 155, which is 46 per cent of the votes, while JDU has to contend with 39 per cent of the vote share.

BJP+-- 155

JDU+-- 83

Others--5

News Nation

BJP+-- 115-119

JDU+-- 120-124

ABP-Neilsen exit poll

BJP+ -- 120

JDU+ -- 117

Others -- 6

Here's what the poll of polls say:

BJP+-- 117

JDU+ -- 118

Others -- 8