The Bihar Assembly election results have delivered a commanding lead for Nitish Kumar’s NDA, which secured 198 seats against the Mahagathbandhan’s 39, with the BJP emerging as the largest party with 89 seats.

Reacting to the outcome in Thiruvananthapuram, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor acknowledged the scale of the NDA’s advantage. “It’s very clear that the lead is overwhelmingly with the NDA. It’s obviously seriously disappointing, and if that turns out to be the final result, remember it’s not yet the final declared result,” he said.

Tharoor stressed that the Congress must undertake a detailed review of its performance. “I think there will have to be some very serious introspection, and I don’t just mean introspection, sitting and thinking, but also studying what went wrong, what were the tactical, messaging or organisational mistakes,” he added.

The Congress leader noted that he was not directly involved in the Bihar campaign. “I’m not somebody who has campaigned in Bihar. I was not invited to campaign in Bihar and therefore, I cannot give you any first-hand information. But I’ve been talking to people… I have talked to ordinary people from the state of Bihar who are doing other jobs. So, I have got a sense and I think that similarly our party leaders must do some very serious analysis of where things went wrong,” he said.

Tharoor urges caution on early trends, flags impact of last-minute schemes

Responding to the initial tallies, Tharoor emphasised that the numbers were still provisional. He said the figures were “a question of leading at the moment,” noting that while the NDA was ahead by “a rather large margin,” it remained important to wait for the Election Commission’s official declaration.

Speaking to reporters, Tharoor said, “It’s a question of leading at the moment. They are leading by a rather large margin. But let’s wait for the Election Commission to discuss and disclose the results. I am sure that the party has a responsibility to study in detail the causes. But remember, we were not the senior partner in the alliance and that RJD also has to look carefully at its own performance. But I will say that on a matter like this, it’s very important that we look at the totality of our performance. Elections are about a number of factors.”

He also pointed to last-minute welfare measures, particularly those aimed at women, as having influenced voting patterns. “The women voters were certainly given some incentives just before the Code of Conduct. Whether we like it or not, unfortunately, that is legal under our laws. I am afraid this is not the first time that we have seen state governments doing such things, of giving benefits to certain segments of society. I don’t think it’s a healthy practice but we saw something quite similar in Maharashtra as well as other seats in the past,” he said.

NDA crosses 200-seat mark in mid-afternoon count

As of 1.35pm, data from the Election Commission showed the NDA crossing the 200-seat threshold. The Nitish Kumar-led alliance appeared on track for a sweeping mandate, with a combined tally of 203 seats: BJP leading in 91, JD(U) in 82, LJP in 21, HAM in five and RLM in four.

On the Opposition side, the RJD led in 25 seats, the Congress in four, CPI(ML) in four and CPI(M) in one, bringing the Mahagathbandhan total to 34. The BSP and AIMIM were leading in one and five seats respectively.