NEW DELHI: The NDA has registered a remarkable victory in the Bihar Assembly elections by winning 202 out of 243 seats.
According to the Election Commission, the BJP has emerged as the largest party by winning 89 seats. Its ally, the JD(U) led by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, won 85 seats, while the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) led by Union Minister Chirag Paswan secured 19 seats.
The Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular), led by former Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi, won 5 seats and the Rashtriya Lok Morcha, led by Upendra Kushwaha, captured 4 seats.
The ‘INDIA’ alliance won only 34 seats. The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) won 25 seats, Congress won 6, CPI (ML) Liberation won 2, and CPI(M) secured one seat. The AIMIM, led by Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi, won 5 seats, while the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Indian Inclusive Party won one seat each.
In Bihar, the BJP and JD(U) contested on 101 seats each, while their ally LJP (RV) fielded candidates on 28 seats. In the ‘INDIA’ alliance, the RJD contested 141 seats, Congress 61, and CPI (ML) Liberation 20 seats.
Talking about the votes received by major political parties, the RJD received the highest number—over 11.1 million votes (1 crore 11 lakh)—making it the “millionaire” party in terms of votes.
The BJP received 9.9 million votes, while the JD(U) secured 9.5 million votes.
In terms of vote percentage, both the BJP and JD(U) contested fewer seats this time but managed to increase their vote share.
The BJP’s vote percentage increased from 19.46% in 2020 to 20.07% this time.
The JD(U)’s vote percentage increased significantly from 15.39% in 2020 to 19.26%.
The RJD secured the highest vote percentage at 23%, slightly lower than its 23.11% share in 2020. In 2020, the RJD had contested 144 seats, compared to 141 this time.
Chirag Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas), now part of the NDA, secured a vote percentage of 4.98%. In 2020, the undivided LJP had a vote share of 5.66%, when it contested 135 seats, whereas the LJP (RV) contested only 28 seats this time.
The Congress vote share dropped from 9.48% in 2020 to 8.72%.
CPI (ML) Liberation’s vote percentage also declined from 3.16% to 2.84%.
Asaduddin Owaisi’s AIMIM received about 2% of the total votes, compared to 1.24% in 2020.