The NDA swept the Bihar 2025 election with 202 seats, BJP emerging largest party, and Nitish Kumar set for a record 10th term amid a major women voter surge.
Brajesh Mishra
Bihar delivered a decisive mandate on November 14 as the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) secured 202 of 243 Assembly seats, marking its biggest victory in two decades. The BJP emerged as the single-largest party for the first time in the state, while JD(U) surged to its strongest performance since 2010. The result positions Nitish Kumar to take oath as Chief Minister for an unprecedented tenth term, underscoring his enduring influence in Bihar’s political landscape.
The NDA entered the election with memories of its narrow 2020 escape, when JD(U)’s tally crashed to 43. After the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the alliance negotiated a parity-based seat-sharing formula — with BJP and JD(U) contesting 101 seats each — eliminating internal rifts that plagued earlier campaigns.
The October–November campaign leaned heavily on the “double-engine government” pitch, welfare delivery, women-centric schemes, and Nitish Kumar’s governance brand. Meanwhile, Bihar witnessed its highest turnout since 1951, led by a historic surge in women voters, which reshaped constituency behaviour. The opposition’s fragmented messaging and allegations of “vote theft” struggled to counter this unified narrative.
Nitish Kumar – poised for a 10th term; the architect of JD(U)’s revival and NDA’s welfare-heavy governance pitch.
BJP – secured 89 seats, emerging as Bihar's leading party for the first time.
Tejashwi Yadav – Mahagathbandhan’s CM face; his alliance collapsed to 35 seats.
Congress – reduced to just 6 seats, its weakest Bihar performance in decades.
Prashant Kishor – contested 238 seats under the Jan Suraaj banner, but failed to open his account.
Nitish Kumar said: “The NDA alliance has achieved a massive majority… gratitude to all partners.”
(Source: Times of India)
While most coverage highlights the NDA’s sweeping numbers, the deeper shift is structural, not sentimental. The coalition’s leap from 122 seats in 2020 to 202 in 2025 is rooted in:
This was not just a wave. It was a reconfiguration of Bihar’s political identity, powered by demographic groups that have historically remained politically flexible.
The BJP’s emergence as the largest party alters the power equilibrium within the NDA, potentially giving it greater leverage in policymaking and cabinet distribution. The Mahagathbandhan’s collapse intensifies questions about the cohesion of the INDIA bloc, already weakened by setbacks in Haryana and Maharashtra.
Nationally, the Bihar mandate signals renewed tailwinds for the NDA heading into the 2026 electoral cycle, while the gender-driven shift hints at a long-term transformation within Hindi belt voting behaviour.
If Bihar’s voter base can realign this dramatically in a single cycle, how many more assumptions about India’s political arithmetic are already outdated?
News Coverage
NDTV – Bihar Election Results 2025 LIVE
Business Standard – Bihar Election Results LIVE
Wikipedia – 2025 Bihar Legislative Assembly Election
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_Bihar_Legislative_Assembly_election
News on Air – NDA Sweeps Bihar
https://www.newsonair.gov.in/ruling-nda-sweeps-bihar-assembly-elections-with-massive-mandate/
Times of India – Five Reasons Behind NDA Win
Economic Times – NDA Wave
India Today – Nitish Kumar Set for 10th Term
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