Bihar Assembly Election 2025 dates: When vote counting ended in Bihar in November 2020, the result arrived like a rebuke to political analysts. It came as a surprise to a majority of opinion and exit pollsters whose predictions came to nothing.
The fight was between the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) comprising primarily the Janata Dal (United) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and the Mahagathbandhan which consisted of primarily the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Indian National Congress, along with a few others like CPI and CPI (M).
Most pollsters had predicted the Mahagathbandhan to go all the way. At the 2020 hustings, however, the NDA eked out a thin majority -- not in a blaze of new mandates but by the slow, patient mechanics of coalition arithmetic -- leaving the Mahagathbandhan staring at what might have been. The numbers were not too far apart. It was a near tie in vote shares and only a handful of seats separated two sides at the final count.
NDA won a total of 125 seats (37.26% vote share), while MGB bagged 110 seats (37.23% share). Nitish Kumar was elected leader of the coalition and Chief Minister.
Volte face, about face: The man of many 'faces'
Over the next five years, a peculiar pattern steadily played out: Nitish Kumar’s uncanny appetite for political reinvention. The veteran chief minister, who has ruled the state on and off for years, continued to treat alliances as disposable instruments, leaving them at his whim's and fancies.
In August 2022, he walked away from the BJP-led alliance that had sustained him, re-stitched ties with the RJD camp, and returned as a symbol -- for a time -- of a reunited "Grand Alliance".
That volte-face was less drama than template: in Bihar, power is often less about permanence than about who can hold the room long enough to write the next chapter.
In January 2024, Nitish again surprised everyone by resigning and then staking a fresh claim to power with BJP support -- a reminder that Bihar’s politics are a perpetual churn, where yesterday’s strategic embrace can become today’s tactical divorce.
The run-up to 2025
As Bihar heads into the election season of 2025, the ruling coalition has tried to pre-empt criticism with largesse in new packaging. Central leaders and the Bihar administration rolled out headline schemes -- from skill universities to multi-thousand-crore packages -- pitched as a cure for outward migration and unemployment.
These announcements appear to be both policy and politics. Large-scale investments announced in public ceremonies that double as campaign rallies, designed to convince an electorate that modernisation is finally reaching Bihar’s towns and panchayats.
While they look promising, the efficacy of such promises will only be judged at the ballot box and in the slow calculus of delivery.
Opposition politics has not been a passive counterpoint. Tejashwi Yadav, twice deputy chief minister and the RJD’s most visible face, sharpened his public profile with roving yatras, protests and rhetoric that have sought to translate his political clout into an electoral success story.
His campaigns have tried to turn the conversation from elite horse-trading to bread-and-butter issues -- jobs, migration, and youth aspiration -- framing a generational contrast with leaders whose legitimacy apparently rests on decades-old networks.
According to analysts, the question for the opposition is not only whether it can win a majority, but whether it can convert latent frustration into a disciplined, ground-level operation that withstands Nitish Kumar's personalistic-transactional talent.
Bihar SIR: One more hot potato this time
This time, the election process has itself become contested. The recent Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the voter rolls -- described by the Election Commission as a long-overdue "purification" -- has stoked a heated debate. Critics of SIR have been warning of large-scale deletions and fears of disenfranchisement.
In a state where margins are tight and every block can swing the results, the management of rolls and the scheduling of phases are not mere technicalities, but strategic variables that can change campaign tempo and voter turnout, poll pundits have pointed out.
The fight was between the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) comprising primarily the Janata Dal (United) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and the Mahagathbandhan which consisted of primarily the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Indian National Congress, along with a few others like CPI and CPI (M).
Most pollsters had predicted the Mahagathbandhan to go all the way. At the 2020 hustings, however, the NDA eked out a thin majority -- not in a blaze of new mandates but by the slow, patient mechanics of coalition arithmetic -- leaving the Mahagathbandhan staring at what might have been. The numbers were not too far apart. It was a near tie in vote shares and only a handful of seats separated two sides at the final count.
NDA won a total of 125 seats (37.26% vote share), while MGB bagged 110 seats (37.23% share). Nitish Kumar was elected leader of the coalition and Chief Minister.
Volte face, about face: The man of many 'faces'
Over the next five years, a peculiar pattern steadily played out: Nitish Kumar’s uncanny appetite for political reinvention. The veteran chief minister, who has ruled the state on and off for years, continued to treat alliances as disposable instruments, leaving them at his whim's and fancies.
In August 2022, he walked away from the BJP-led alliance that had sustained him, re-stitched ties with the RJD camp, and returned as a symbol -- for a time -- of a reunited "Grand Alliance".
That volte-face was less drama than template: in Bihar, power is often less about permanence than about who can hold the room long enough to write the next chapter.
In January 2024, Nitish again surprised everyone by resigning and then staking a fresh claim to power with BJP support -- a reminder that Bihar’s politics are a perpetual churn, where yesterday’s strategic embrace can become today’s tactical divorce.
The run-up to 2025
As Bihar heads into the election season of 2025, the ruling coalition has tried to pre-empt criticism with largesse in new packaging. Central leaders and the Bihar administration rolled out headline schemes -- from skill universities to multi-thousand-crore packages -- pitched as a cure for outward migration and unemployment.
These announcements appear to be both policy and politics. Large-scale investments announced in public ceremonies that double as campaign rallies, designed to convince an electorate that modernisation is finally reaching Bihar’s towns and panchayats.
While they look promising, the efficacy of such promises will only be judged at the ballot box and in the slow calculus of delivery.
Opposition politics has not been a passive counterpoint. Tejashwi Yadav, twice deputy chief minister and the RJD’s most visible face, sharpened his public profile with roving yatras, protests and rhetoric that have sought to translate his political clout into an electoral success story.
His campaigns have tried to turn the conversation from elite horse-trading to bread-and-butter issues -- jobs, migration, and youth aspiration -- framing a generational contrast with leaders whose legitimacy apparently rests on decades-old networks.
According to analysts, the question for the opposition is not only whether it can win a majority, but whether it can convert latent frustration into a disciplined, ground-level operation that withstands Nitish Kumar's personalistic-transactional talent.
Bihar SIR: One more hot potato this time
This time, the election process has itself become contested. The recent Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the voter rolls -- described by the Election Commission as a long-overdue "purification" -- has stoked a heated debate. Critics of SIR have been warning of large-scale deletions and fears of disenfranchisement.
In a state where margins are tight and every block can swing the results, the management of rolls and the scheduling of phases are not mere technicalities, but strategic variables that can change campaign tempo and voter turnout, poll pundits have pointed out.
You may also like
'Gay people will give me cancer, Trump is here': Newark-bound flight diverted after man's bizarre statement; passenger removed
'Familiar and predictable': Will potential sale of RD-93 engines to Pakistan benefit India? Russian experts think so
'Always so negative': Trump told Netanyahu during Gaza peace talks; had called to give 'good news'
Lloyds Bank explains new £300 rule as customers given 'options'
Kamal Haasan on his way to Karur
