Even as the results of the all-important Bihar Assembly polls are to be declared, television news channels came up with confusing updates and even forecasts on the initial leads from the counting rooms.
While NDTV showed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its allies as being ahead, rival channel CNN-IBN offered conflicting news about the Mahagathbandhan leading. ABP and local TV channel ETV Bihar also showed similar forecasts. NewsX claimed that Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal-United (JD-U) was ahead.
Such was the confusion that at one point, state-run channels Rajya Sabha TV and Lok Sabha TV had conflicting leads. RSTV showed JDU+, while LSTV had BJP+ leading.
Finally, NDTV altered its figures, showing that the Grand Alliance was leading, which put some sort of a uniformity into the discourse.
All this confusion lead to premature celebrations at both the alliances headquarters, before they decided to stop and watch the situation keenly.
According to Election Commission data broadcast by news agency ANI at 10:10 am, following 5 rounds of counting, the Mahagathbandhan is leading in 135 seats, while NDA is ahead in 90. Others are leading in 7 seats.
This has been one bitterly contested and keenly watched election, keeping the country hooked on to it. Even on the result day, the Bihar elections have us all hooked and fooled, even if for a brief period.