Bihar’s 2025 assembly election — held in two phases on November 6 and 11, with votes counted on November 14 — delivered the most decisive verdict the state has seen in a decade and a half. Turnout touched a record 67.13 per cent, and the ruling National Democratic Alliance swept 202 of the 243 seats, crossing the 200-seat mark for only the second time after its 206-seat haul in 2010. Ten months on, the aftershocks of that mandate are still reshaping Bihar’s politics.

The winning alliance: five partners, one sweep

The NDA’s seat-sharing formula, announced after hard bargaining in Delhi and Patna, gave the BJP and Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United) 101 seats each — the first time the JD(U) did not contest more seats than the BJP — with Chirag Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) on 29, Jitan Ram Manjhi’s Hindustani Awam Morcha on six and Upendra Kushwaha’s Rashtriya Lok Morcha on six. The results confirmed the BJP’s growing heft: it emerged as the single largest party with 89 seats, ahead of the JD(U)’s 85, while the LJP(RV) won 19, HAM five and the RLM four. Nitish Kumar was sworn in as chief minister for a record tenth time at Patna’s Gandhi Maidan, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in attendance; BJP leaders Samrat Choudhary and Vijay Kumar Sinha took oath as his deputies, with Choudhary receiving the crucial Home portfolio. The BJP’s strike rate — 89 wins from 101 contests — was the best in the alliance, and Chirag Paswan’s 19 wins from 29 seats cemented his position as a significant force within it.

The opposition’s rout

The INDIA bloc, led by the Rashtriya Janata Dal’s Tejashwi Yadav, managed just 34 seats — the RJD 25, the Congress six, the CPI(ML) Liberation two and the CPI(M) one. Yadav retained his Raghopur seat by a margin of 14,532 votes over the BJP’s Satish Kumar, but the alliance was swept almost everywhere else. Notable opposition winners included Osama Shah and the CPI(ML)’s Sandeep Saurav. Yadav had campaigned on a striking promise: a government job for every household without one, delivered within 20 days of forming the government. Asaduddin Owaisi’s AIMIM won five seats, the BSP and the Indian Inclusive Party one each, while Prashant Kishor’s Jan Suraaj, which contested all 243 seats in its electoral debut, failed to open its account.

The final tally:

• NDA total 202 — BJP: 89, JD(U): 85, LJP (Ram Vilas): 19, HAM: 5, RLM: 4
• INDIA bloc total 34 — RJD: 25, Congress: 6, CPI(ML) Liberation: 2, CPI(M): 1
• AIMIM: 5, BSP: 1, Indian Inclusive Party: 1

The aftershocks of 2026

The year’s biggest twist came in the spring: Nitish Kumar resigned his legislative council seat on March 30, 2026 and took oath as a Rajya Sabha member on April 10, moving to national politics. BJP leader Samrat Choudhary succeeded him as chief minister. The transition marked a generational shift — the BJP, long the junior partner in Bihar, now leads the government it helped build. The churn continued into June, when the NDA announced candidates for the biennial legislative council polls, including Nishant Kumar, the former chief minister’s son, signalling how the post-Nitish era is being shaped from within the ruling alliance.

What the mandate was fought on

The election played out against the backdrop of the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision of voter rolls, which removed some 65 lakh names from the draft list and became a national controversy. Jobs, migration and law and order dominated the campaign. With the NDA holding a three-fourths majority, the question now is whether the new government can convert its historic mandate into the development and employment outcomes Bihar’s record turnout demanded.

Source: The Financial Express