Polling was held in five phases for Bihar Assembly elections. (Press Trust of India)
The Bihar results threw up a massive and unexpected headline - different TV channels were offering vastly discrepant forecasts for who is winning Bihar.
NDTV showed BJP firmly ahead, like Times Now and NewsX to start with.
(Live: Bihar Results 2015)But CNN-IBN showed the Grand Alliance winning, along with ABP.
The Election Commission data at 9.45 am showed the Grand Alliance ahead as well.
(Bihar election Results: Full coverage)"This sort of discrepancy is a first," said Yogendra Yadav, psephologist and former AAP leader. "We have vigorous checks and balances in place, we are rechecking all the data," said NDTV's Prannoy Roy on air. (
Bihar Election Results: Constituencies)The data from the consortium which national channels subscribe to showed BJP comfortably winning, said Mr Yadav. "The other source for local channels showed a one-sided win for the grand alliance. Now it seems the national consortium is correcting to the data from local channels," he said.
(Bihar election Results: Party Summary)All national channels use the same consortium for election data.
(Bihar election Results: Candidates)By 10.25 am, all channels placed the Grand Alliance in the lead.
The celebrations that had peaked early at the BJP headquarters in Patna became low-key as the JDU office set off fireworks and threw Holi-like colours in the air.
BJP Leader Ram Madhav also tweeted,"What a comeback for JDU+. In 1 hour their leads hv overtaken dat of ours. It looks a photo finish. What an election".