Live: How TV news channels are covering the Bihar election results

The Bihar Assembly election finally draws to a close today. The first election held since the Covid pandemic began, voting took place across the state's 243 constituencies in three phases, on October 28, November 3 and November 7. Exit polls predicted a Mahagathbandhan sweep, led by the Rashtriya Janata Dal's Tejashwi Yadav, over the incumbent Nitish Kumar from the National Democratic Alliance.

9 am

Counting began at 8 am, ANI announced, both in Bihar and in bypolls in Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and others.

9.04 am

On Times Now, Sumanth Raman tells Rahul Shivshankar he thinks this election may come down to an "implosion of the JDU, and the BJP holding on to some extent, but that might not be enough for the NDA."

9.05 am

On India Today, Rahul Kanwal says, "Seventy percent of JDU candidates, on the seats for which we have leads, are trailing at the moment."

9.11 am

On Aaj Tak, Rohit Sardana is asking about Prashant Kishore’s whereabouts: "Kahan hain?" Anjana Om Kashyap says he runs a good "mausam vibhaag"’ — knows the political climate. Meanwhile, very early trends suggest an RJD lead.

9.17 am

On India Today, BJP MP Swapandas Gupta says sometimes one has to swallow a "bitter pill" in politics and stay with your alliance partners. He also accepted that it was obvious for a while that Nitish was unpopular.

9.20 am

On NDTV, Prannoy Roys asks whether the NDA will choose Nitish Kumar as the next chief minister. Sanket Upadhyay says that despite JP Nadda saying on record that Nitish will be their CM, you never really know.

Sreenivasan Jain adds, "If the JDU gets anything less than 5-60, Nitish himself wouldn't want to be chief minister."

9.21 am

Padmaja Joshi and Rahul Shivshankar on Times Now: "Many people are saying that there is an anti-Modi mood, but the big breaking news is that the bypolls elsewhere prove otherwise."

9.24 am

Quick update from the Election Commission website: So far, the BJP is leading in 10 seats, the Congress in 3, the JDU in 6, and the RJD in 5.

9.26 am

Supriya Shrinate, Congress spokesperson, tells Rajdeep Sardesai of India Today: “We’re not worried at all. We will do a lot better than the margin’s you’re projecting right now. You will see the BJP doing badly as well."

9.38 am

Amit Malviya is on CNN News18. On the question of JDU pulling down NDA's count, he said, "There is bound be some anti-incumbency. We are not denying that. Also considering the fact that the elections are happening in the corona phase."

9.43 am

BJP spokesperson Ashok Sinha on NDTV: "I don't think we wanted to cut Nitish to size. We started preparing since April-May at the booth level. Unfortunately, LJP is not with us else it would have been a landslide."

9.45 am

Any regrets on backing Nitish as chief ministerial candidate? BJP spokesperson Ashok Sinha says: "No regrets. It was a real thought out plan. NDA will surge ahead...As far as early results are concerned, this is the worst that NDA could have seen in one hour of postal ballot counting. Henceforth, I think it will be NDA which will surge ahead."

9.50 am

JDU's KC Tyagi says, "We're being defeated by the natural disaster of Covid and not RJD. The blame of Bihar's poverty for the last 20 years has been placed on us." Ravish Kumar on NDTV India says the NDA should accept that lockdown was a failure.

9.59 am

"It's a dead heat!" Rahul Shivshankar says on Times Now. "There are a large number of Left media that will drive you towards an outcome."

Meanwhile, the headline: "Watch a super thriller unfold."

10 am

Quite a few leads out on the Election Commission's website. The BJP leads in 31 seats, the Congress in 11, JDU in 20, and RJD in 32.

10.04 am

Zee News' graphics do not disappoint: it has Tejashwi Yadav and Rahul Gandhi in the Mahabharata carriage.

10.05 am

Anjana Om Kashyap on Aaj Tak got excited when NDA hit 101 and said; "This is a very good number, a 'shagun wala' number." Seconds later, the count went down to 100 and Anjana remarked that it's going to go up and down quickly, obviously.

10.08 am

Rajdeep Sardesai on India Today says: “NDA has touched 100. That’s psychologically important.”

Panelist Rajat Sethi, author and political analyst, says: “All the leading stalwarts of BJP, like Amit Malviya and Swapan Dasgupta, had come out and had conceded defeat way too early. This is like Joe Biden."

10.10 am

Sambit Patra on R Bharat: "We need to be slightly more patient. Because of the pandemic, the EVMs are being opened slowly. The results will get solidified between 12-2 pm."

10.11 am

On NDTV India, Ravish Kumar and Kanhaiya Bhelari tell viewers that the results indicate that the future of JDU is "bleak" because it is the only party which has not cultivated its second line of leadership

10.13 am

Rubika Liyaquat on ABP News: "Look at this double engine sarkar. The numbers are changing now. Nitish is 120 plus."

10.18 am

On Republic Bharat, Pradeep Bhandari springs up all excited because Tej Pratap Yadav is trailing by 800 votes. "But it's very close! We won't know anything till 1 pm!" he says after sitting down.

10.20 am

Congress spokesperson on News18 says all predictions should wait till rural votes are counted, adding: "Laal, nile, kai rangon ke alam ayenge, aakhir mai yahi hoga ki hum ayenge."

10.21 am

Pradeep Bhandari springs up yet again to announce that the CPI candidate is trailing in Kanhaiya Kumar's constituency. He says, "People who were saying 'Kanhaiya Kanhaiya Kanhaiya' need to see this!"

10.23 am

On India Today, Shama Mohamed of the Congress asks Rajdeep Sardesai to get his channel's tally ticker changed from RJD+ to Mahagathbandhan.

10.24 am

NDTV India's Kanhaiya Bhelari says: "I told Nitish Kumar that society should have all kinds of people like Mandela, Gandhi and current politicians, but he was adamant to feed everyone only goat's milk. He thought prohibition would make him PM." His analogy for prohibition is forcing everyone to drink goat's milk.

10.27 am

On News18 India, the anchor says, "Slow counting has its own fun. Everyone is enjoying it."

Ajay Devgn, appearing for Vimal Elaichi, agrees.

10.29 am

Anant Singh, the RJD politician who is also an infamous meme, is leading from Mokama in Patna district in the Bihar poll.

10.32 am

It's time for an update from the Election Commission. The BJP is leading in 54 seats, the JDU in 41, the Congress in 15, and the RJD in 54.

10.34 am

Amish Devgan declares on News18 India, "This elections is not easy for Nitish Kumar. But it is not easy for 'Lalu ke Lal' Tejaswi Yadav either."

10.37 am

RJD's Faisal Ali says: “BJP and JDU put together will not be in a position to cross 100 seats. They will be far far below 100."

A surprised Rajdeep Sardesai says: “I have to go by the numbers and at the moment, it is 109 (NDA) plays 112 (RJD). It is very tight.”

10.41 am

Madhu Kishwar of "forwarded as received" fame is an election analyst on Zee News. She says: "Modiji ke muh se apshabd nikalte nahi hai jaise unke opponents ke muh se nikalte hai."

10.43 am

News18 announces that they have numbers for all 243 seats. "We are the first channel to have results from all seats!"Election team cheers and claps in the background.

10.44 am

As numbers move, Rajdeep Sardesai excitedly says: “There are 19 others now and those 19 others must be licking their chops. This is the moment they’ve been waiting for. If this is how it ends 110 (NDA), 111(RJD), 19 (OTH), just think what is the price of an average MLA?”

10.47 am

On NDTV, the JDU's KC Tyagi says that every JDU worker was hurt by Chirag Paswan's statement of sending Nitish to jail. "We don't make personal statements. Even if you come to power, do you have the capability of doing it?"

10.48 am

On Republic Bharat, Aishwarya of JNU shooting fame is screaming, "Justify 55! Justify 55! Why 55! 55! Justify 55!"

Still unclear who he's asking. No numbers on the screen show 55 and three people are responding at the same time.

10.50 am

Pradeep Bhandari says, "These results are for less than 30 percent vote that has been counted so we don't know anything concrete yet."

Aishwarya screams immediately, "But today's weak link is who? Congress! They don't deserve 70 seats! Tejashwi is crying!"

10.53 am

Rahul Shivshankar on Times Now: "You can see how tight this election is. This is not a wave in Tejashwi's favour...Not some changed agent that is sweeping through Bihar...Both sides are eating into each other's seats."

10.55 am

Rahul Kanwal asks: “Are we seeing a stunning comeback by the NDA? 127 (NDA) vs 98 (RJD+). Manoj Tiwari, is there a song that comes to your mind before I let you go?”

BJP leader Manoj Tiwari immediately breaks into a song on BJP and Bihar. After he finishes singing, he says: "I'm feeling very good, Rahul. It's 11am now and right now, this trend is very important for us"

10.56 am

Rahul Kanwal on India Today cautions his viewers: "Don't arrive at any sweeping conclusions just yet. Don't call the election in favour of party A or party B."

11.28 am

On NDTV India, one of the panellists, Sudeep Srivastava, explains that gains in vote share for Mahagathbandhan are misleading when compared to 2015 because back then the JDU was part of the alliance with the RJD and the Congress. The RJD alone hasn't gained so many votes compared to the last election.

11.20 am

Nudged about Axis My India's poll predictions not reflecting the current trends, the polling agency's chairman Pradeep Gupta tells India Today's anchors to wait until 3 pm as only 10 percent of the votes have been counted so far.

11.18 am

His panellists are pulling Ravish Kumar's leg about how paranoid he is regarding coronavirus. Ravish responds by spraying sanitizer in the studio and saying, "I got biscuits in my pocket today. There is no plate in front of me! Must take precautions."

11.16 am

Navika Kumar sits as a panellist on Times Now. She says, "The ball is in Nitish Kumar's court. As far as Modi and the BJP are concerned, they are going to honor their commitment and keep Nitish as their face. If not for the full 5 years, definitely for now. The fact is that vote has been cast for Nitish's face in Bihar. It will then depend on Kumar to hand it over to BJP, because frankly he doesn't have a legacy to give."

11.11 am

Asked if the mood at the BJP headquarters has changed, Sanket Upadhyay of NDTV laughs and says, “Yes, any election that they are winning or losing, this is a party that always tried to project that they are winning...that level of confidence has always existed in this new BJP...In the morning they said let’s wait for the trends and the moment the numbers flipped suddenly the very same BJP spokesperson said, 'See we told you.' So you see the spring in their step now.”

10.58 am

Zakka Jacob on CNN-News18 points out that five rounds of counting are done but there are 25 more to go, so the picture might change drastically.

11.35 am

On News Nation, a graphic shows Nitish Kumar dancing and calls him "Diwali Jingalala". To this, the anchor Deepak Chaurasia says, "Arey, what sort of dance was Kumar doing? Was it hip-hop, rock and roll, twist? What have you made him dance to? What will Tejasvi sing then? Meri kismat mein tu nahi." The graphic then shows Tejasvi Yadav dancing with a bomb and says, "Diwali see pehle diwala."

11.44 am

Pranoy Roy on NDTV says a local TV channel in Bihar is projecting 117 and 118 seats for MGB and NDA, while all national channels are showing NDA in lead. "We must restrain ourselves from calling the election."

11.42 am

Rahul Shivshankar on Times Now: "Khan market gang's narrative has been exposed, stop ridiculing national channels. People should watch national channels in plenitude."

11.40 am

Kailash Vijayvargiya of the BJP tell Sanket Upadhyay on NDTV that the incumbent coalition fought the election under Nitish Kumar's leadership and "for now I'll say he is the CM. Rest I'll tell you in the evening".

11.38 am

Talking about the caste consolidation in this election, Deepak Chaurasia on News Nation declares there is always a fear in Bihar that if the Muslims and the Yadavs come together, "they'll create havoc in the state".

11.50 am

On Times Now, Ghanshyam Tiwari congratulates Nitish Kumar for winning a 4th term. The anchor Padmaja Joshi asks, "You're congratulating Nitish Kumar, but won't you congratulate the single largest party, BJP?"

Tiwari duly obliges. RSS remarks, "OK, let's get you off your high horse, Mr Tiwari, and look at the numbers."

11.54 am

Deepak Chaurasia on News Nation: "After 15 long years, Nitish Kumar will again take power. He has again proved all his critics wrong."

11.59 am

On Mojo Story, Sankarshan Thakur of the Telegraph says Nitish Kumar is an aging leader without a party. This election clearly shows that Bihar is moving towards a bipolarity between the BJP and the RJD.

11.56 am

In a rare feat, Padmaja Joshi is not letting Rahul Shivshankar speak on Times Now. "Please let me finish, please let me finish, you are not letting me finish," RSS complains.

He then launches into a monologue about why the NDA is winning which ends with, "That's why the Left media needs to introspect."

12 pm

Times Now doesn’t forget to remind their viewers that on this particular day, they are being responsible.

Rahul Shivshankar says: “Times Now has been very responsible all through the day by sticking to official data that’s been coming through. It’s been a bit slow, viewers, but it’s been rewarding.”

12.09 pm

Election Commission website: BJP leading in 74 seats, the JDU in 47, Congress in 21, and RJD in 59.

12.10 pm

Times Now says that invoking Article 370, Pulwama and Galwan has worked for the NDA. Navika Kumar says that the youth factor didn't work for the RJD and this is an existential crisis for Rahul Gandhi.

12.11 pm

Someone is distributing T-shirts that say "Welcome Nitish Kumar, CM of Bihar" outside the JDU office. On ABP News, Rubika shouts to her reporter: "Zara pucho bhai laddu kahan hai."

12.14 pm

The Election Commission will hold a press conference at 1.30 pm.

12.15 pm

Yogendra Yadav says the time for postmortem hasn't come yet. "Counting in Bihar is slow and the number of booths this time are more," he says.

Navika Kumar says, "That's why I like Yogendra Yadav for being cautious amidst all this euphoria."

12.20 pm

According to the Election Commission website, the BJP's vote share is 20 percent while the RJD's is 22.8 percent. The Congress and JDU's vote shares are 9.26 percent and 15.49 percent, respectively.

12.41 pm

Rahul Kanwal of India Today asks Amit Malviya, the head of the BJP IT cell, if he is breathing easy now.

Malviya says: “To be honest, we were always confident that we will go over the red line. I didn’t want to sound despondent or exuberant when I came on the exit polls because clearly I didn’t want to indulge in a lot of euphoria that goes around the numbers…”

Kanwal says: “You’re entitled to a few potshots at this time, go for it." Rajdeep Sardesai chips in: “You can spatter us in the evening. Keep all your egg yolk ready for us in the evening if we’ve gone horribly wrong."

12.45 pm

Sumanth Raman on Times Now says that there are a lot of seats with less than 1,000 votes, so we won't know for sure till 4.30 pm.

Navika asks, "Does this mean the Khan Market gang is hoping against hope for victory?"

12.46 pm

ABP newsroom keeping things light with a mimicry artist who imitates Lalu Prasad Yadav and a folk singer singing Aarambh Hai Prachand from the movie Gulaal.

12.50 pm

Two panellists are arguing who is the panauti in this election.

"Rahul Gandhi is the panauti."

"No, Modi is the panauti."

"No, Rahul is the panuati."

"Modi is the panauti."

Amazing analysis underway.

12.51 pm

Bihar's chief election officer tells India Today that the Election Commission has counted 20 percent of the total votes in the state: 80 lakh of 4.1 crore. Ninety percent of the votes, he says, will be counted by late evening.

12.53 pm

Republic Bharat has given up on the Bihar election and is back to its main story: Arnab Goswami and how Bharat is asking for justice.

1.01 pm

On India Today, BJP’s Amit Malviya smiles and says: “I want to say a big hello to Rajdeep. You should not have opened the champagne looking at the exit polls...So, Rajdeep, drink your sorrows in the evening with a bottle if that’s still around. Good luck to you while you count and suffer this few hours on television as we continue to…”

Rajdeep cuts in: “Amit, you’re very nice and generous to me. That was potshot number 5. I don’t drink champagne, I don’t like champagne. It’s not my preferred drink. I will tell you what my preferred drink is off the camera."

1.06 pm

The Election Commission website says that the BJP is leading in 72 seats and the JDU in 49. The RJD is leading in 65 seats, the Congress in 20.

1.14 pm

On Mirror Now, Yogendra Yadav says: "In Bihar, it's clear what the Left has to offer: votes of the poor, of agricultural labourers...It's not clear what the Congress brings to the table."

1.17 pm

On News Nation, Deepak Chaurasia tells the Congress spokesperson Ajay Upadhyay: "I feel you are slowly accepting that you have missed the train now. Last time, you fought for 41 seats and won 27. This time, you are contesting for 70 and winning only 18."

1.21 pm

JDU supporters outside Nitish Kumar's house keep the spirits high with song and dance. One of the supporters predicts that the RJD will end up in "single digits" and Tejashwi, like his father, will end up in jail.

1.26 pm

Congress spokesperson Ragini Nayak says that if only 20 percent of the votes have been counted so far, the counting of the remaining 80 percent will go on until night, and we must remember that "laalten raat ko hi jalta hai aur laalten ko haath hi uthata hai".

1.30 pm

Important update from ANI on how there are "no ladoos in sight" among BJP leaders.

1.33 pm

“The BJP will now realise that it cannot win in Bihar without Nitish. No way,” declares Prannoy Roy on NDTV.

1.40 pm

Deputy Election Commissioner Ashish Kundra says “There has been absolutely glitch free counting process so far. We have been able to gauge that slightly more than 1 crore votes have been counted in Bihar, which means significant ground to be covered yet…”

1.50 pm

Meanwhile, NDTV is winning at a different game.

1.52 pm

Deputy election commissioner Chandrabhushan Kumar says: "Counting is not slow, more EVMs had to be accounted for. Compared to 2015, there has been an increase in the number of polling centres so number of EVMs had also increased. There has been an increase in the number of postal ballots as well. There is no question of slow counting."

2.14 pm

On CNN News18, Anand Narasimhan respond to an update about the counting of votes by saying: "Ye picture abhi baaki hai mere dost! Bahut baaki hai!'

2.17 pm

On Aaj Tak, Mrutyunjay Tiwari of the RJD reiterates that his party will form the next government in Bihar. To this, Rohit Sardana says, "Mrutyunjay ji aap Donald Trump jaisi baat kar rahe hain."

2.26 pm

Navika Kumar on Times Now jubilantly says, “Everybody was talking about how it has gone only one way, which is against the Modi government, against the Nitish government. We brought in the factor on the Garib Kalyan Yojna and the money into the bank accounts of each of these beneficiaries. That seems to have worked as an X factor in favor of the BJP...But the biggest X factor is that Rahul Gandhi has this uncanny ability of pulling everything down with him.”

2.54 pm

On India Today, the BJP's Swapan Dasgupta says that Modi over the years have become more than a politician, with a religious and political iconography for the people. Rajdeep Sardesai compares it to a cult. Dasgupta shrugs.

3.04 pm

News18 Bihar is projecting that the NDA has fallen short of majority and stands at 119 now. RJD+ at 111.

3.13 pm

Rahul Shivshankar on Times Now: "All those assumptions that were made in the exit polls by a large number of Left media...gone out of the window."

3.19 pm

BBC Hindi is speaking to JDU women workers at the party office in Patna. The women claim that prohibition and women's safety is why women are supporting Nitish Kumar.

3.35 pm

The RJD's Manoj Kumar Jha claims that channels are not showing "real time data of counting", and that his party is "winning".

3.26 pm

Analysing the break-up of votes in Mithila, Times Now's Padmaja Joshi says, "This is an area where this is a caste stronghold of the BJP. This is the area of Bhumihars...the upper-caste Hindus...So, they have managed to expand their footprint in a locality which was theirs anyway."

Rahul Shivshankar chips in: "And this is where Mr Modi raked up references to 'jungle raj' so it seems to have had an impact, as well as having...dissuaded voters from falling for the Mahagathbandhan."

3.30 pm

ABP News has Nitish Kumar sailing down the Kosi river in a boat, waiting for election results. The channel also has Bigg Boss 12 contestant Deepak Thakur in the studio, entertaining panellists with qawali.

3.31 pm

More exciting graphics on ABP News: a double engine train has just arrived at the studio with the latest numbers.

3.45 pm

What Tejashwi Yadav must be thinking right now, in the words of singer Deepak Thakur: "O Janta log, mann me viyog..."

4 pm

The Election Commission declares the first result of the Bihar election: the RJD's Lalit Yadav wins in Darbhanga Rural constituency.

4.23 pm

NDTV asks BJP leader Vijay Jolly if his party will now want to dictate political terms to its ally in Bihar, JDU, and if they will still retain Nitesh Kumar as the chief minister. Jolly replies, “We will take a decision when we come to the bridge. We will take a decision to cross the bridge.”

4.30 pm

Reporting from outside the BJP office in Delhi, a News Nation reporter says there's a sense among the party's workers in the capital that they should now come to the forefront in Bihar and stop being a "pichhlaggu".

4.36 pm

On Times Now, Congress leader Archana Dalmia stands by her tweet claiming that Bihar's voters have fallen for the "jumla" of free vaccines.

4.52 pm

Wins so far on the Election Commission website: two for the BJP, two for the JDU, and two for the RJD. The BJP is leading in 74 seats, the JDU in 39, the RJD in 68, and the Congress in 19.

5.07 pm

Marya Shakil on CNN-News18: "If anything, this is a victory of the prime minister and his appeal among the voters of Bihar. Just look at the surge, look at the massive gain that the BJP has ensured from 2015 to now. It is almost in sync with what the BJP got in 2019."

5.12 pm

Tejasvi Surya has claimed victory for the NDA in Bihar, calling it a "vindication" of Narendra Modi's "good governance".

5.17 pm

News18 Jharkhand projects 120 seats for the NDA in Bihar, increasing the Mahagathbandhan tally to 114.

5.20 pm

Times Now congratulates itself for "not making a fool out of itself".

5.31 pm

Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury calls AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owasi a "vote-cutter", warns other "secular parties" to be "alert".

5.36 pm

RJD says: "We are ahead in 84 seats. Wait till the end."

5.42 pm

CNN-News18 is bucking the trend and showing different results compared to most channels. According to them, RJD is now the single largest party leading in the Bihar election.

5.47 pm

India Today is reporting that 62.5 percent of votes have been counted so far. Anchor says, "Nobody is calling the election but looking at the leads, it doesn't seem to be the Mahagathbandhan wave as predicted earlier."

5.49 pm

Numbers have changed on India Today as well. They're showing RJD as the single largest party as well. NDA has dropped below the halfway mark.

5.51 pm

The Election Commission website shows the BJP at 72 and the RJD at 73.

5.52 pm

“We’re so glad that we at NDTV never projected anything. The history of exit polls in this country in recent times has been disastrous,” said Vishnu Som of NDTV.

6.12 pm

The Election Commission says results "may come till late night", the Hindu reports, and said counting officials "need not hurry". In a press conference, the EC also said that 4,858 rounds of about 7,700 scheduled rounds of counting in Bihar have been completed.

6.18 pm

NDTV India reports that there are 18 seats with margins less than a 1,000 votes.

6.25 pm

Republic anchor is very upset that a panellist keeps saying that the results might change till late tonight, since counting is not done.

"But tell us what you think based on the numbers on your screen!" she says. "You've been saying since morning have patience, how much more patience do you need?"

Panellist responds meekly, "I'm not saying this, the Election Commission is saying this."

6.43 pm

Psephologist Sanjay Kumar on Aaj Tak: "I dont think voters have voted differently. The difference is more palpable in Maithilanchal and Seemanchal regions, where Muslim voters are in a majority, with around 30 percent and 20 percent respectively. Seeing the results, it now seems there has been a division in the Muslim vote by Owaisi because of which NDA has profited."

7.10 pm

As the race in Bihar tightens, anchor Rahul Kanwal says politician Chirag Paswan is like a human bomb: "Hum toh dubenge sanam, tumhe bhi le dubenge," adds journalist Javed Ansari.

News18 is projecting 119 seats for the NDA and 116 for the RJD in Bihar.

7.11 pm

Here's a quick look at the latest figures on the Election Commission website. The BJP has won 10 and leads in 62, the RJD has won 8 and leads in 68.

7.25 pm

On the voting pattern in Seemanchal, India TV is critical of Owaisi for "splitting" Muslim votes. "Hyderabad biryani ne bigada khel," it says.

7.41 pm

Rahul Kanwal says there are 21 seats with a margin of less than 1,000. "And RJD is leading in a disproportionate amount of those. Sixteen for RJD and 5 for BJP."

On India Today, a reporter says BJP supporters have calmed down and are quiet. Goes on to ask a supporter, "Why are you silent suddenly?"

Supporters suddenly start screaming, sloganeering and say, "No, no we are very excited! Modiji will win!"

7.44 pm

Yes, that's an animated drone buzzing around India TV's studio with the latest stats.

7.59 pm

Here's the latest numbers from the Election Commission and with that, we're wrapping up this live blog. There's still some way to go, from the looks of it. Thanks for staying with us, and good night and good luck!