Prime Minister Narendra Modi waves (Gamchha) as he arrives at BJP HQ, after the massive victory in the Bihar Assembly Elections, in New Delhi on Friday. BJP president JP Nadda is also seen. November 14, 2025.
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SHIV KUMAR PUSHPAKAR
It was stunning victory for the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in Bihar that Prime Minister Narendra Modi dubbed as a sign of things to come in the upcoming elections in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Till 9 pm as the votes were still being counted, the NDA was set to win a staggering 202 seats in the 243-member Bihar Assembly, amounting to almost 83 per cent of the total seats.
The BJP had already won 81 seats and was leading in 8 seats, emerging as the single largest party in Bihar. The JD(U) had won 72 seats and was leading in 13 seats. Its allies, Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) had won 22 seats and was leading in 3 seats, the Hindustani Awam Morcha had won five seats and the Rashtriya Lok Morcha had won three seats and was leading in one.
The incumbent Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who crafted the NDA’s victory, thanked the electorate and his allies with characteristic understatement: “With your support, Bihar will grow to be among the most developed States in the country.” Kumar acknowledged the role of women, who registered a record turnout of 71.6 per cent compared to 62.8 per cent of male voters, in the NDA’s stupendous success.
The Prime Minister was far more effusive in his analysis of the results, predicting that it paves the way for the BJP’s success in West Bengal and subsequent polls in the southern states. “The river Ganga flows into Bengal from Bihar. And the victory in Bihar, like the river, has paved the way for our victory in Bengal… This will also inspire our workers in the South,” he said.
The NDA’s “tsunami” as the BJP president J P Nadda described it, wiped out the Mahagathbandhan, which was restricted to just about 35 seats. This is a staggering loss of 75 seats since the last Assembly polls in 2020, during which the coalition of Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Congress and the Left parties managed to win 110 of the total 243 seats.
In terms of vote share, according to results up to 9 pm, the Mahagathbandhan dropped to a combined 35.91 per cent, compared to 37.21 per cent they had secured last time. Asaduddin Owaisi’s All Indian Majlis-e-Ittehadul-Muslimeen won five seats.
The Congress attributed its loss to “vote chori (vote theft)” by the BJP. In a post on X, the party leader Jairam Ramesh said: “Without doubt, the election results in Bihar reflect vote chori on a gigantic scale – masterminded by the PM, the HM, and the Election Commission.”
The PM was dismissive of the Congress’s accusation. “All that the Congress does is to attack the EC, makes frivolous complaints against ‘vote chori’. Their entire agenda is negative,” he said. Asserting that the Congress is headed for a split, the PM said, “The Congress has now become the Muslim League Maoist Congress. Because of this, even within the Congress a new branch is emerging. I have a suspicion that there may be another big division of the Congress in the future.”
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Published on November 14, 2025