The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) raced ahead in the counting of votes for the Bihar Assembly elections on Friday, crossing the 200-seat mark by noon and signalling a decisive mandate, according to the Election Commission of India.
By 4:00 p.m., the NDA was leading in 204 constituencies. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) held the maximum leads with 96 seats, followed by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United) with 84 seats. Chirag Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) [LJP(RV)] was ahead in 19 seats, while the Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) led in five.
The Mahagathbandhan continued to lag behind with leads in 28 seats. Within the alliance, Tejashwi Yadav’s Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) led in 24 seats, the Congress in two and the CPI(ML) Liberation in one.
Among other parties, the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) registered an impressive performance with leads in six constituencies, while the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and Independent candidates were ahead in one seat each.
Vote-share trends indicated a closely contested election. The BJP secured 20.84% of votes counted so far, followed by JD(U) at 18.85% and LJP(RV) at 5.06%. Within the Mahagathbandhan, the RJD recorded 22.69%, Congress 8.62% and CPI(ML) Liberation 2.99%.
Counting began at 8 a.m. across all 243 constituencies under multi-layer security. Postal ballots were taken up first, followed by Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) results from 8:30 a.m. A total of 4,372 counting tables and more than 18,000 counting agents were deployed to ensure smooth and transparent counting. Most exit polls had projected an NDA victory, even though a few suggested a close contest.
The contest has once again underlined the political rivalry between the NDA led by Nitish Kumar and the Mahagathbandhan led by Tejashwi Yadav. In the 2020 Assembly polls, the NDA won 125 seats and formed the government under Nitish Kumar. In 2022, Kumar briefly aligned with the RJD–Congress alliance before returning to the NDA ahead of the 2024 Parliamentary elections.
Bihar’s electoral landscape over the past decade reflects major shifts. The BJP increased its tally from 53 seats in 2015 to 74 in 2020, while the RJD remained a strong contender, winning 80 seats in 2015 and 75 in 2020. JD(U) saw a drop from 71 seats in 2015 to 43 in 2020, while the Congress declined from 27 to 19 seats over the same period.
The NDA currently comprises the BJP, JD(U), LJP(RV), Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) and the Rashtriya Lok Morcha. The Mahagathbandhan includes the RJD, Congress, CPI-ML, CPI, CPI(M) and the Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP).