Bihar Polls 2025: NDA Landslide Overshadowed by Close Battles on Nine Tight Seats

Bihar: NDA made a very strong performance in the Bihar Assembly elections of 2025. The alliance won 202 out of 243 seats. BJP was ahead with 89 seats and JDU with 85 seats. On the other hand, the Grand Alliance was reduced to only 35 seats, out of which RJD got 25 seats. With these results, Nitish Kumar is returning to power for the tenth time.

How was the voting pattern?

This time the voting was recorded at 67.13 percent, which is a record so far. Participation of women in large numbers is being considered decisive in the election results. The government's women-centric schemes, focusing on youth and law and order, are being linked to the NDA's victory. Prime Minister Narendra Modi described this victory as support for women and youth.

On which seats was the contest the closest?

Amidst the wave of majority, very tough competition was seen for many seats. The victory margin on nine seats was less than 1000 votes. Sandesh, the seat of Bhojpur, was the most discussed, where JDU's Radha Charan Sah won by just 27 votes. Agiaon, Forbesganj, Ramgarh, Chanpatia, Jehanabad, Goh, Bodh Gaya, and Bakhtiyarpur were also among the seats where the results were decided by small margins.

What is the opposition's allegation?

After the counting of votes, the opposition alleged irregularities in many seats. Tejashwi Yadav claimed that “the game has taken place at many places.” Rahul Gandhi also raised questions on the election process. However, the Election Commission rejected all the allegations and described the entire process as transparent.

Do narrow victories go in the Commission's favor?

Senior journalist Kunal Pratap Singh says that if there had been irregularities in the election process, the Grand Alliance would not have won the seats with such a small margin. He gave the example of East and West Champaran. RJD won the Dhaka seat by just 178 votes. In West Champaran, Congress won Chanpatia and Valmiki Nagar by narrow margins. According to Singh, these results show that local competition and voter mobilization were decisive, and the basis for doubting the process becomes weak.