The ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has crossed the halfway mark of 122, while the Opposition's Mahagathbandhan is trailing behind as per the Election Commission of India
Pic/PTI
A striking poster featuring Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar standing beside a tiger, captioned boldly 'tiger abhi zinda hai' (tiger is alive), appeared outside his residence on Friday morning, just as the NDA opened up a clear early lead in the Bihar elections 2025, reported news agency PTI.
The poster, cinematic in its framing and unmistakably designed to project authority, quickly became a magnetic point for cameras and cadre alike.
It went up at around the same time the Election Commission began flashing the day's first substantive trends.
The ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has crossed the halfway mark of 122, while the Opposition's Mahagathbandhan is trailing behind as per the Election Commission of India.
According to the leads on 229 seats, the NDA was leading at 167 seats, with the Bharatiya Janata Party's lead on 71 seats and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar-led Janata Dal (United) ahead in 72 constituencies. Chirag Paswan's LJP(RV) was leading on 18 seats.
The BJP and the JD(U) have maintained a high conversion rate of 67 per cent and 64 per cent, respectively.
Mahagathbandhan was trailing behind, with a lead of just 60 seats. While Tejashwi Yadav's Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) was leading on 43 seats, its allies showed an underwhelming performance as per the early trends. Congress was leading on 8 seats, while the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation was leading on six seats.
Meanwhile, AIMIM is ahead in two seats.
JD(U) workers gathered around the poster as if unveiling a victory totem ahead of time.
"'Sirf trend aaya hai, par message clear hai, Nitish ji politics ka asli tiger hain', (the trends are only out, Nitish ji is the real tiger of Bihar politics)," one worker told a news channel, posing proudly beside the larger-than-life artwork.
The image of Kumar standing calmly, while a tiger crouches beside him reinforced a long-running political metaphor JD(U) supporters invoke whenever questions over his political longevity emerge.
Vehicles slowed to take photographs; some residents stepped out just to see "the tiger poster" making the rounds on social media.
As Bihar geared up for the long day ahead, one visual set the tone early: Nitish Kumar, shoulder-to-shoulder with a tiger, casting an unmistakable message that the "tiger", at least for his supporters, was very much alive.
Subscribe today by clicking the link and stay updated with the latest news!" Click here!
