India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) supporters celebrate the lead of their party alliance in initial results for the Bihar state assembly polls, in Patna, India, Nov 10, 2020. (AFTAB ALAM SIDDIQUI / AP)

NEW DELHI - The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) -led coalition Wednesday won local elections in the eastern Indian state of Bihar, officials said.

This was the first election in India amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the people of Bihar have made a "decisive decision" to give development a chance

The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) was announced the winner of the Bihar elections by the Election Commission of India in the early hours of Wednesday. The NDA won 125 seats in the 243-member Assembly, the lawmaking body, while the opposition alliance bagged 110 seats. Eight seats went to smaller parties.

Bihar's Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) has emerged as the single-largest party as it registered victory on 75 seats, followed by BJP, which recorded the win over 74 seats.

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Incumbent Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's party Janata Dal-United (JD-U) got 43 seats.

The opposition Congress party managed to win just 19 seats.

Local elections in Bihar were conducted in three phases and the counting of votes was carried on Tuesday. The vote count was carried out until early Wednesday.

This was the first election in the country amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

In the ongoing elections, the ruling JD-U and BJP coalition sought to regain power under the leadership of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the people of Bihar have made a "decisive decision" to give development a chance.

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