Bihar: Assembly and council elections
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Bihar poll toppers: 1951-2010
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Caste composition of the Bihar Legislative Assembly
1951-2015
Graphic courtesy: The Times of India, November 10, 2015
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Caste composition of the Bihar Legislative Assembly, 1951-2015
The winning parties
1951-2015
From: November 11, 2020: The Times of India
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Bihar assembly elections, 1951-2015: The winning parties
Bihar, Election trends, Assembly and Lok Sabha
2005-2014
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Graphic courtesy: The Times of India
Graphic courtesy: The Times of India
Graphic courtesy: The Times of India, September 21, 2015
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Bihar: Election trends, 2005-2014 (assembly, Lok Sabha)
Bihar: Performance of SC and ST candidates in the 2005 and 2010 Assembly Elections
MPs and MLAs, Bihar, 2004-14
Legislative council_elections
2022
April 8, 2022: The Times of India
Patna: The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has emerged as a big winner in the biennial elections to 24 legislative council seats from the urban local bodies and panchayati raj institutionsin the state, as it won at least 12 seats till the time of going to press, reports Abhay Singh. The battle turned cliffhanger in three constituencies and their results were awaited till late evening.
RJD, led by Lalu Prasad, won five of the 23 seats it contested, while Congress secured one seat. Three other seats went to the kitty of independent candidates.
On an average, the individual winning counts of the three major parties is almost the same — BJP six and JD(U) and RJD five each.
From the NDA side, RLJP led by Union minister Pashupati Kumar Paras won the lone Vaishali seat it contested. Congress won one seat. The singular uptake of the elections is that RJD, by winning five seats, will now have the status of lead opposition party, and former CM Rabri Devi will get the status of leader of opposition in the Upper House.
Women candidates and women voters in Bihar Assembly polls
1957-2015
Graphic courtesy: The Times of India, September 21, 2015
Graphic courtesy: The Times of India, September 21, 2015
Graphic courtesy: The Times of India, November 9, 2015
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Women candidates in Bihar Assembly, 1957-2010
Female and male voters, Bihar Assembly polls, 1962-2010
1957-2015: Women in the Bihar assembly elections: candidates, MLAs and voter turnouts
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YEAR-WISE DEVELOPMENTS
2010: Bihar Assembly election
2010 elections: Victory margins
The Times of India, Oct 06 2015
Atul Thakur 48 seats saw win margins under 5k in 1010
Several close calls can add up to an electoral sweep
Even a contest that is largely bipolar and pro duces a decisive verdict in a state need not produce decisive mandates from seat to seat, as the 2010 polls in Bihar illustrate. An analysis of the 2010 results shows that the onesided verdict in which the JD(U)-BJP combine won 206 of the 243 seats against just 25 for the RJD-LJP alliance nevertheless saw a lot of close seat level contests.
In fact, the winning candidate got a majority of the votes polled in less than 10% of the seats. BJP won in 12 of these constituencies while JD (U) won 11. There were another 91 constituencies where the winning candidate polled between 40% and 50% of the valid votes.Of these, 47 seats went to the JD (U) while the BJP and RJD won in 32 and 11 such seats respectively .
It is interesting to note that in more than half the seats in a largely bipolar contest the winning candidate got less than 40% of the votes. Indeed, there were 29 constituencies where the winner got less than even 30% of the votes polled. Despite sweeping the elections, the winning candidates of the JD(U)-BJP alliance were more or less evenly distributed across all these ranges.
The closeness of the contests at the seat level is revealed also in the victory margins in the 2010 elections. There were 48 constituencies where the victory margin was less than 5,000 votes. The JD(U) won 17 of these seats, the RJD 12 and BJP 11.This clearly sugBATTL gests that even a marginal swing in BI the votes could have thrown up a significantly different outcome in terms of party tallies, though the overall re sult would not have changed.
The average margin was about 15,000 votes. In 145 seats, or about 60% of the total, the vic tory margin was less than this average of 15,000 votes. Interest ingly, in the 98 conEGROUND stituencies where HAR the margin was higher than the av erage the winning alliance was successful in all but one.
It is also instructive to note that despite the essentially bipolar nature of the contest, 35.4% of the votes polled did not go to either of the two major combines.The Congress won 8.4% and smaller parties and independents mopped up a sizeable 27%.
Clearly, therefore, what is bipolar at the state-wide level can become quite multi-cornered at the micro level. That explains why so much effort goes into micro managing the details.
58% MLAs face criminal charges
The Times of India, November 10, 2015
Pranava Kumar Chaudhary
Altogether 142 (58%) of the 243 MLAs elected in 2015 face criminal charges. RJD tops the list with 46 out of its 80 MLAs in that category. The total figure is 1% up compared to 57% in 2010 assembly election. One MLA has declared himself illiterate while 93 (38%) are 5th to 12th pass, 138 (57%) graduate or above and nine are simply literate. Altogether 80 MLAs have been re-elected.
Poonam Devi Yadav, who has been elected from Khagaria on a JD(U) ticket, is the richest among the MLAs with total assets worth over Rs 41 crore. The average assets per MLA elected this time is Rs 3.02 crore. In 2010, it was only Rs 82.46 lakh.
According to Bihar Election Watch (BEW) and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) analysis based on the MLAs' affidavits submitted with their nomination papers, 98 (40%) have serious criminal cases like murder, attempt to murder, creating communal disharmony, kidnapping and crime against women pending against them.
Out of the 142 MLAs facing criminal cases, 70 (49%) have already been chargesheeted. RJD MLA from Jhanjharpur Gulab Yadav has declared one rape case pending against him, said BEW state coordinator Rajiv Kumar. Ten MLAs have kidnapping cases pending against them. Anant Kumar Singh, an Independent MLA from Mokama in Patna district, has declared two cases of kidnapping or abduction for murder against him, Kumar said.
Party-wise, 46 out of 80 MLAs from RJD (58%), 37 (52%) out of 71 from JD(U), 34 (64%) out of 53 from BJP, 16 (59%) out of 27 from Congress, all the three (100%) from CPI(ML), one (50%) out of two from RLSP and both (100%) from LJP face criminal charges. READ ALSO:
In 5 years, Bihar MLAs' wealth rose how much?
The top three richest MLAs are Poonam Devi Yadav of JD(U) from Khagaria with assets over Rs 41 crore followed by Congress MLA from Bhagalpur Ajeet Sharma (Rs 40 crore) and independent MLA from Mokama Anant Kumar Singh (over Rs 28 crore).
According to the report, Achmit Rishideo of JD(U) from Raniganj in Araria has the lowest assets of only worth Rs 9 lakh. Satyadeo Ram of CPI(ML) from Darauli in Siwan has assets worth more than Rs 11 lakh while Shyam Bahadur Singh of JD(U) from Barharia in Siwan has assets worth over Rs 14 lakh.
Altogether 127 (52.2%) MLAs have declared their age between 25 and 50 years while 116 (48%) are in 51- 80 years age group.
Only 28 (11.5%) women have been elected this time against 33 (14.5%) out of 228 MLAs in 2010.
The young, the rich, the lucky
2010-15
2015
See Bihar: Assembly elections, 2015
2020
The results
From: November 13, 2020: The Times of India
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Bihar, assembly elections: 2020
Prominent Winners, Losers
From: November 12, 2020: The Times of India
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Bihar assembly elections, 2020: The voting pattern, region- and ethnicity- wise.
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Bihar Result Status | |||
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Status Known For 243 out of 243 Constituencies
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| Party | Won | Leading | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen | 5 | 0 | 5 |
| Bahujan Samaj Party | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Bharatiya Janata Party | 74 | 0 | 74 |
| Communist Party of India | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Communist Party of India (Marxist) | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) (Liberation) | 12 | 0 | 12 |
| Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) | 4 | 0 | 4 |
| Independent | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Indian National Congress | 19 | 0 | 19 |
| Janata Dal (United) | 43 | 0 | 43 |
| Lok Jan Shakti Party | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Rashtriya Janata Dal | 75 | 0 | 75 |
| Vikassheel Insaan Party | 4 | 0 | 4 |
| Total | 243 | 0 | 243 |
MGB lost by 0.03% votes
November 12, 2020: The Times of India
So near, yet so far for Tejashwi: MGB got just 0.03% votes less than NDA
For Lalu Yadav’s son Tejashwi, who turned 31 a day before the results, it was a case of so near, yet so far.
In terms of vote-share, the difference between NDA and the RJD-led Mahagathbandhan was literally wafer-thin. Complete coverage: Bihar assembly elections
At the end of a cliffhanger unlike any that India has been witness to in recent times, what separated NDA and MGB terms of the total votes they got was a mere 12,768 (out of about 3.14 crore). NDA polled 1,57,01,226 votes and MGB 1,56,88,458 votes.
That’s just 0.03% of the total votes polled in the state, with the NDA’s share being 37.26% and the MGB’s 37.23%.
It’s also considerably less than the average victory margin of 16,825 in these polls; incidentally, 130 of the state’s 243 seats were won by margins in excess of 12,768 votes.
So, if MGB had got as little as 53 more votes in each of the state’s constituencies or NDA had got that many fewer, MGB’s vote share would have been higher.
The neck and neck fight between the two alliances is in stark contrast to the one-sided contest five years ago when the Mahagathbandhan of RJD, JD(U) and Congress got 1,59,52,188 votes and the NDA of BJP, LJP, HAM (S) and RLSP got 1,29,90,645 votes, a difference of over 29.6 lakh votes or about 7.8% of the total votes polled in the state.
Tejashi-helmed RJD got the largest number of seats at 75 (also the largest vote share of 23.1%), but NDA as a whole got three more than the majority mark of 122, compared to RJD-led Mahagathbandhan’s 110.
Votes polled by parties
From: November 12, 2020: The Times of India
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Votes polled by parties in the Bihar assembly elections, 2020.
Mithila dumps Cong, embraces BJP
November 12, 2020: The Times of India
Finally, Mithila voters too dump Cong, embrace BJP
New Delhi:
After a long time, Mithila and Tirhut have given BJP the same standing that was once enjoyed by Congress in Bihar politics. The emergence of Janata parties in recent decades saw Magadh and Bhojpur deciding who would hold fort in Patna, but not this time. Congress was reduced to zero in Mithila and the party managed to hold on to just three seats in Tirhut in the just-concluded assembly elections. Newbie VIP, an ally of BJP, bagged four seats in these two regions.
The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) won over 65% of its seats from these two Maithili-speaking areas. The saffron alliance’s 74 of 125 seats have come from here. BJP’s consolidation in this one-time Congress fief is significant considering that in the 2015 elections, the party had got just three seats in Mithila and 23 in Tirhut in the face of the JD(U)-RJDCongress combine.
The number of seats surged to 45 this time.
Bihar can be divided into five regions — Tirhut, Mithilanchal, Kosi-Seemanchal, Magadh and Bhojpur.
The two Maithili-speaking regions send 114 MLAs to the assembly while Bhojpur and Magadh together contribute 93 MLAs, and Kosi-Seemanchal accounts for 36.
Another significant blow to the Mahagatbandhan was delivered by the Kosi-Seemanchal region with a large Muslim vote. The grand alliance lost its edge here with RJD getting three seats and Congress six. BJP has been the gainer here too, going from seven in 2015 to 13 now.
However, Magadh and Bhojpur remain RJD strongholds, delivering 40 seats to the party which has emerged as the single largest at 75. NDA has failed to make major inroads in these two regions. JD(U) was reduced to 10 seats in Magadh and none in Bhojpur.
Hindustani Awam Morcha, Vikassheel Insaan Party
November 11, 2020: The Times of India
In Potboiler, Allies Lost & Gained Turn Plot
Manjhi’s HAM And Sahani’s VIP Add Crucial Numbers To NDA Tally That Prove Decisive
New Delhi:
The Hindustani Awam Morcha and Vikassheel Insaan Party, two lastminute entrants into the NDA fold ahead of the Bihar polls, lent a crucial helping hand to the combine as it inched towards the halfway mark.
HAM’s Jitan Ram Manjhi, a Dalit leader who became chief minister with Nitish Kumar’s blessings but soon fell out and returned to the NDA fold after failed negotiations with RJD, won his seat and his party bagged three other seats of the seven it contested.
Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP) leader Mukesh Sahani also walked out of the RJDled camp to return to NDA and won four seats. Neither may have a great strike rate but their tallies are crucial for NDA in the light of JD (U)’s under performance.
Manjhi and Sahani delivered for the NDA on two counts — the promise to fetch the support of small communities like the Musahars and Nishads and act as a shield against Chirag Paswan — not a part of NDA this time. The presence of Manjhi helped in pre-empting the charge that JD(U) was unmindful of Dalit votes in particular.
Poll analysts said the HAM chief also consolidated Dalit votes in large swathes of eastern Bihar, helping raise NDA’s tally in many constituencies.
“What worked against Manjhi, though, was that a significant number of the seats HAM fought were given to Manjhi’s own family, sending out a parochial signal that runs contrary to what PM Modi stands for,” said political analyst Sudhir Singh. This might explain a poor strike rate.
Sahani, who made his fortunes as a contractor for lavish sets erected for Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s ‘Devdas’ developed his political ambitions while on the sets of films in Mumbai. He became a part of the NDA in 2015, but his poor performance was considered to have contributed to the defeat of the BJPled alliance.
A leader of the most backward class fishermen and boatmen in the riverine areas of the state, Sahani’s community holds sway in sizeable portions of north Bihar, where the community can tip the balance in at least a score of seats. Embraced by the BJP to add to its vote count and to send a message across to MBCs, the VIP added four seats to the NDA tally even though Sahani lost from Simri Bakhtiarpur.
MIM wins 5 seats in Seemanchal, dents MGB
Ramashankar, November 11, 2020: The Times of India
Owaisi’s MIM wins 5 seats in Seemanchal, dents MGB
Patna:
In its third attempt in the Bihar polls, the Asaduddin Owaisi-led AIMIM has managed to make its presence felt in Seemanchal region. The rise of Owaisi’s party — it has won five seats — appears to have caused substantial damage to the RJD-led Mahagathbandhan, which failed to perform on expected lines in the region.
AIMIM is now a force to reckon with in the Muslim-dominated constituencies of Seemanchal, which comprises four districts — Kishanganj, Araria, Katihar and Purnia. Kishanganj has a Muslim population of about 70%, followed by Katihar (43%), Araria (42%) and Purnia (38%). AIMIM has won Amour, Kochadhaman, Jokihat, Baisi and Bahadurganj seats. In the 2019 bypoll, AIMIM had won Kishanganj, a traditional Congress seat.
2025
The results
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The results of the 2025 elections to the Bihar Legislative Assembly
Constituency- wise results
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Constituency- wise results of the 2025 elections to the Bihar Legislative Assembly
Urban areas
Abhay Singh TNN, Nov 15, 2025: The Times of India
Patna : NDA’s sweep of all 10 major urban assembly seats in Bihar has cemented a dominance that has held for two decades, pushing an already weakened opposition further from an urban foothold. BJP won nine of these seats while its ally JDU secured one.
Bihar has 38 district headquarters, but only a few qualify as purely urban seats. Most headquarters include rural pockets outside municipal corporations and urban local bodies. State govt has also formed nagar panchayats by grouping villages to provide urban amenities, boosting population figures and tax revenues. Technically, these areas still fall within rural constituencies.
The truly urban seats lie in Patna and its periphery, along with Gaya Town, Purnia, Bhagalpur and Darbhanga. NDA has held these seats for 20 years.
Congress once enjoyed similar urban dominance before its reach contracted in the 1990s. RJD attempted to break into centres like Bhagalpur but failed. JDU drifted away from Digha after winning it in 2010.
CM Nitish Kumar’s party even lost its stronghold Phulwari to CPI-ML because of the latter’s hold on the rural periphery. JDU has now regained it, while BJP convincingly defeated RJD nominees in Danapur, Kumhrar and Bankipur.
Congress ceded Patna Sahib to BJP’s Ratnesh Kumar. RJD’s pick lost to BJP’s Sanjay Kumar in Kumhrar and to minister Nitin Nabin in Bankipur.
BJP minister Prem Kumar, an eight-time MLA, won Gaya Town against the Congress nominee. Former Union minister Ram Kripal Yadav defeated RJD’s Ritlal Yadav in Danapur. In Purnia, BJP’s Vijay Khemka beat Congress’s Jitendra Yadav, while Sanjay Saraogi defeated RJD nominee in Darbhanga.
BJP’s Rohit Pandey became MLA by defeating Congress’s Ajeet Sharma in Bhagalpur.
Age, Finances, education, Criminal record of MLAs
Nov 15, 2025: The Times of India
NARENDRA MODI
A landslide in Bihar on the back of BJP’s emphatic shows in Haryana, Maharashtra and Delhi attests to his enduring appeal and popularity. Some might argue it even points to increasing appeal among voters. Yes, BJP benefited from voters’ fondness for Nitish. But that BJP won more seats with a jaw-dropping strike rate is thanks to Brand Modi. Bihar results add more lustre to that brand ahead of coming electoral battles in Assam as well as Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Kerala, states that are real big challenges for BJP. Bengal especially is a political tough nut he will want to crack this time. His party’s mascot since 2014, he remains the X factor for BJP even when he is not on the ballot.
NITISH KUMAR
This election began with many predicting a sad end for him and ended with him winning in style. He was called the ‘weak link’ in NDA.
But he again proved himself as the ultimate swing factor in a state he has governed since 2005, barring nine months. His mental fitness was under scrutiny but a decisive chunk of voters, especially women, rooted for the man credited with ending ‘jungle raj’. 2020’s underwhelming JDU performance is now seen as a blip, put down to LJP’s hit job on him. Few can predict if Nitish at 74 has another election left in him but, if this is his last election, he got a send-off few have managed or will manage.
DHARMENDRA PRADHAN
His standing in BJP gets a further boost with this win, coming as it does after BJP’s big victory in last year’s poll in Haryana — he was election in-charge there, too. A savvy leader from the OBC section, he gets the credit for producing a well-oiled coordinated campaign with BJP’s allies in Bihar. Unlike in MGB, NDA’s ground game saw great coordination. Having played an important role in the party’s sweep of LS polls in Odisha and its maiden assembly poll win, the Bihar victory makes him a strong candidate for BJP national president.
PRASHANT KISHOR
His sound bites filled the airwaves but the wave he predicted for his party has turned out to be not even a trickle. He banked on a campaign heavy on his own visibility but thin on the ground and organisational strength. He tried to introduce a new political idiom, but Bihar showed there’s a difference between smart on paper and effective on the ground. His decision to not contest elections proved costly and sent out a signal that he was scared to put his money where his mouth was. A silver lining: MGB’s trainwreck may give him an opportunity to grow.
ASADUDDIN OWAISI
First time it might have seemed like a fluke but the second time it is surely evidence of his appeal among Muslims outside the home turf of Hyderabad. AIMIM’s impressive show in Muslim-dominated seats in Bihar sends out a warning signal to secular parties. His articulation of Muslim grievances has earned him a following and makes him a contender for Muslim votes in future contests, starting with neighbouring Bengal, which borders Seemanchal.
JITAN RAM MANJHI
The wily Dalit politician has moved through various political formations but is now a steadfast BJP ally. He has played a helpful role in the Magadh region. He has been vocal in his endorsement of BJP’s leadership, which may continue to be generous to his demands, at times in a way that’s clearly disproportionate to his political strength in Bihar. In Indian politics, that’s a big proof of success for a small party.
DIPANKAR BHATTACHARYA
It’s a double whammy for him. CPIML(L) has not only lost considerable ground but, in the process, has also lost its ideological sheen in search of poll wins. This was starkly visible in Siwan, where it found an ally in Osama Shahab, son of gangster-politician Md Shahabuddin.
It was against Shahabuddin that CPIML(L) had once waged a relentless political battle. He will now have to think of ways to keep his party relevant.
RAHUL GANDHI
In a state where Congress was a junior partner to RJD, his party’s rout will have a disproportionately big impact on him as he ran a shrill campaign against SIR, an issue that failed to cut ice with the electorate. His choice of campaign issues has often drawn scepticism and Congress’s miserable performance in Bihar will add to the criticism. Politics is unforgiving, so he may find it difficult now to get opposition allies to support his pet themes. The partial redemption his party’s plucky show in Lok Sabha polls gave him is now all but gone. It won’t be a surprise if internal rumblings start in Congress.
AMIT SHAH
The sharpest election strategist India has seen in a long time, as well as a heavyweight whose confidence is infectious, both for BJP and its allies, he started plotting the Bihar campaign in challenging circumstances, with questions swirling about both Nitish and the lack of a BJP face in Bihar. He began shaping and executing BJP’s poll strategy on ground long before elections were announced — a practice he began in 2013, when he first came to the national stage. His job was also placating grumbling allies and reaching out to dissidents. His management skills are the backstory of this BJP win, like they have been for so many of the party’s victories.
TEJASHWI YADAV
Lalu’s favourite child now looks at an uncertain future. Given how dynastic parties work, his leadership of RJD may not be questioned immediately, but RJD’s humiliating performance means that the party’s many satraps as well as its longstanding supporters among Yadavs and Muslims will turn restive. At least some may consider looking at other options. His attempts to distance himself from the memories of ‘jungle raj’ – a legacy of his father’s reign – and the general unruliness associated with RJD didn’t convince everyone. Voters also saw through his unrealistic poll promises.
CHIRAG PASWAN
He has again proved what makes him a coveted swing ally in the fractured polity of Bihar. Without him, NDA barely clung to office in 2020. The Dalit leader drove a hard bargain with his much bigger allies and has delivered even in seats considered rather difficult. However, the scale of the mandate for bigger allies BJP and JDU also limits his space for bargaining.
SANJAY JHA
Jha’s BJP background and upper caste identity had made him a target for more than a few detractors within JDU. But the party’s working president has now earned his stripes. Working diligently under Nitish’s shadow, he marshalled the party’s campaign, including the always tricky job of ticket distribution. He also ensured smooth coordination with allies. The big win is also a big boost to his standing in JDU.
UPENDRA KUSHWAHA
Coming from a politically important caste, the RLM leader can now hope for a ministerial berth in Modi govt, a position he had in 2014-19. He remains a helpful cog in the NDA wheel in Bihar. The win will lend him political heft, something he has long coveted but struggled to acquire.
MUKESH SAHANI
He has jumped between alliances as bigger parties courted him in search of swing votes. He bargained hard, kept channels open with both sides, got MGB to announce him as deputy CM candidate. But the results are a body blow to his ambitions. He is unlikely to find any taker now.
Chirag Paswan
Dipak Dash & Jai Narain Pandey TNN, Nov 15, 2025: The Times of India
New Delhi/Patna : Before these polls, Chirag Paswan had described himself as “sabji mein namak” (salt in vegetables), which is essential to any political broth.
Winning 19 of the 29 seats his party contested, Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) chief proved his mettle again in Bihar as his performance propelled NDA past the 200seat mark. What makes the showing more significant is that LJP (RV) has wrested 17 seats from Mahagathbandhan despite talk of discontent around candidate selection.
Chirag’s rise in Bihar became evident during seat-sharing talks, when his party got a fair share despite only one of its 143 candidates winning during the 2020 assembly polls. His bargaining power came from the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, when LJP(RV) won all five seats it fought.
At a time when the fortunes of other Dalit netas like Mayawati and Jitan Ram Manjhi have been on the decline, the son of former Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan has emerged a prominent face. The victory has also virtually put an end to the claim his uncle Pashupati Kumar Paras laid to Paswan senior’s legacy. Though Paras has been claiming that his Rashtriya Lok Janshakti Party is part of NDA, the coalition gave a clear signal when it did not give him a single seat. Before his political plunge, Chirag made his Bollywood debut in 2011 with ‘Miley Naa Miley Hum’, starring with Kangana Ranaut. In 2014, he convinced his father to ally with BJP.
Chirag’s political journey began in 2014, when he won Jamui Lok Sabha seat. He retained it in 2019 before shifting to his father’s stronghold, Hajipur, in 2024 and becoming a Union minister. The 42-yearold sees a bigger role for himself in 2030. “Whether today or tomorrow, my reason for joining politics will remain the people of Bihar,” he told TOI before the results.
Muslim votes
Vishwa.Mohan, Nov 15, 2025: The Times of India
New Delhi : The five seats won by Asaduddin Owaisi-led AIMIM in Seemanchal region of east Bihar, where Muslim voters have a substantial presence, reflect the community’s willingness to diversify its options in areas where it feels secure that experimentation may not benefit BJP.
Results show that AIMIM won five of nine constituencies with more than 40% Muslim population, with its Muslim candidates securing decisive victories. They defeated four Muslim candidates fielded either by Mahagathbandhan or JDU, and in one seat, the party defeated a Hindu candidate from BJP. In three of the five victories, AIMIM defeated NDA candidates, including two from JDU. The five seats won by AIMIM are Baisi, Jokihat, Bahadurganj, Kochadhaman and Amour.
The party also fielded seven candidates in constituencies where Muslim population ranges between 25% and 40%, but it failed to win any of these seats, which went to NDA. Except for Congress, which won Kishanganj seat, neither RJD nor CPIML-Liberation registered a victory in the belt — marking a shift from the decades-long pattern of Muslims backing an RJD-led alliance. The outcome points to something larger — a desire to look beyond Hindu-led parties and prefer an outfit seen as their “own,” even at the risk of aiding BJP and its allies.
This pattern first surfaced in the 2020 elections when Muslims in Seemanchal voted for Owaisi despite accusations from RJD and Congress that he was BJP’s “B-team.” AIMIM had then won five seats, though four later defected to RJD. Yet the party’s base does not appear eroded. Owaisi has tapped into the community’s “sense of hurt” over what political scientists term “invisibilisation,” pointing out how secular parties seek Muslim votes but hesitate to offer “fair” representation. The results indicate that many in the community are listening — something that may, in the future, force secular parties to confront tough choices over greater Muslim representation.
MY MLAs
Yadav MLAs down by half, Muslim at all-time low of 11
Muslim representation in the newly-elected 243member Bihar assembly will be at its lowest ever, with only 11 making it, against 19 in 2020. The number of Yadav MLAs has shrunk by almost half at 28, against 55 in the outgoing assembly — the lowest in the post-Mandal era since the 1990s. It’s not RJD but AIMIM that has the most number of Muslim MLAs at 5.
Jitan Ram Manjhi
Abdul Qadir TNN, Nov 15, 2025: The Times of India
Gaya : Winning five of the six seats allotted to his party as part of the NDA deal for its constituents, Union minister Jitan Ram Manjhi has delivered a much-needed booster to his party, which has seen a series of resignations and expulsions of late. Beyond his own party’s strong performance, the relatively weak showing by LJP (RV), an ally also seen as a rival, has added to the cheer among his supporters.
LJP(RV)’s defeat in Bodh Gaya has introduced a fresh dynamic into NDA politics in the region. Shyam Deo Paswan, the LJP(RV) candidate, lost the Bodh Gaya seat by a narrow margin of 881 votes while Nandlal Manjhi and Laxman Manjhi, both former aides of Jitan Ram Manjhi, secured 10,181 and 4,024 votes, respectively. The victory of Deepa Manjhi, Jitan Ram Manjhi’s daughter-in-law, from the Imamganj reserved seat is particularly significant.
However, the defeat in Tekari came as a shock for the HAM(S) leadership. Anil Kumar, a former minister, was expected to perform strongly but failed to secure the seat. The most morale-boosting win came in Sikandara, where the party’s candidate defeated ex-speaker Uday Narain Chaudhary of the RJD.
Jan Suraaj Party
The Times of India
Kishor yet to come of age, poll debut proves to be a dud
As the dust settles, Prashant Kishor’s ambition lies buried. Kishor’s Jan Suraaj Party, which had decided to go it alone, has failed to open its account. His forecast that his party, launched with much fanfare about a year ago, would either soar or crash has proved prophetic.
In 35 seats, PK’s party tally more than win margin
Nov 16, 2025: The Times of India
Prashant Kishor’s Jan Suraaj Party lost its deposit in 236 of the 238 seats that it contested but data suggests it may have played spoiler in quite a few seats, reports Atul Thakur. In 35 constituencies, the party’s votes were higher than the winning margin.
NDA won 19 of these seats while 14 went to Mahagathbandhan. AIMIM and BSP each won one of these seats.
Of course, the fact that Jan Suraaj got more votes than the margin in a seat does not necessarily mean it made the difference to the outcome since there is no way of knowing where those votes would otherwise have gone.
The party came third in 115 seats and in one, Marhaura, it finished second.
Kishor would at best be a spoiler, many of his critics had said
Of the 35 seats, within NDA, JDU, Kishor’s former party, won 10 of these seats while BJP won five. The tally was three for LJP-RV and one for RLM.
In the MGB camp, RJD was the winner in nine of these seats while Congress won two. One seat each went to CPM, CPIML-L and IIP.
Despite his amplified presence on the social media, many critics of the party had claimed that Prashant Kishor would at best be a spoiler. Some felt his upper caste identity meant he would cut into BJP’s vote while others argued he would divide the anti-incumbency youth votes since he was talking about issues like migration from the state.
CPIML(L)
ambika.Pandit@timesofindia.com, Nov 15, 2025: The Times of India
CPIML(L) fails to get pass Marx, drops from 12 to 2
The Bihar results have delivered a major blow to CPI (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation with its double-digit tally of 12 seats in 2020 plummeting to mere two seats — Karakat and Paliganj — out of the 20 it contested this time.
The party that traces its beginnings to mass movements and grassroots mobilisation among the landless and marginalised failed to retain even its strongholds.
While describing the election outcome as “unnatural and not a reflection of ground reality” and claiming that the result was facilitated by deletion and addition of voters and by dispensing dole to women, party general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya did acknowledge the need for parties in the Mahagathbandhan to “introspect” on this severe setback. The CPIML(L) certainly needed to take a closer look at its strategy. Not only has it lost in its strongholds, the party which played a crucial role in keeping together the rather fragile alliance is set to lose its place as one of the key anchors because of the abysmal performance.
In what was seen as a strong comeback in 2020, the Left party had secured 12 of the 19 seats it contested as part of the Mahagathbandhan, emerging as a critical force with grassroots influence in belts like Bhojpur, Siwan and Arrah. Its influence in the opposition alliance was evident ahead of the current polls.
Through the power-play over ticket distribution and declaration of Tejashwi Yadav as the CM face of the alliance, one saw Bhattacharya playing a key role in ironing out differences between RJD and Congress.
The other Left parties too have performed poorly, with CPM winning just 1 of 4 seats as against 2 last time and CPI, which had won 2 seats last time, failing to open its account though it contested 6.
