With more than half the day still remaining, it is quite clear who is going to have the last laugh when the vote counting for the 2025 Bihar assembly elections are done. It is none other than a man, who has more or less cemented his place as a dominant political force in the state over the past two decades - Nitish Kumar.

As of 12.30 pm, when this article is being written, the ruling NDA-led by Nitish is leading in 192 of the 243 seats, with JD(U) leading in 78 of those seats.

This is not any storm that erupted recently. This is a wave that has been building over years

Party insiders say Nitish worked “quietly, under the radar,” but the response on the ground showed voters were ready to “make noise through their votes”, as JD(U)’s Sanjay Kumar Jha put it. JD(U) spokesperson Neeraj Kumar

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