The Bharatiya Janata Party won the most seats in Bihar's assembly election, part of a landslide win for the alliance it leads.

It won 89 of the 243 seats on its own, short of a majority by itself.

The Janata Dal (United) — also part of that alliance — finished close behind with 85 seats.

Together, the alliance took 202 of the 243 seats.

BJP's own vote share was 20.1%, against JD(U)'s 19.3%.

The JD(U) left the Mahagathbandhan in January 2024, and Nitish Kumar stepped down as Chief Minister. He then returned to office at the head of a new government with the BJP-led NDA, fixing the alliance lineup both sides would fight this election under.¹

The Election Commission ordered a Special Intensive Revision of the state's electoral rolls in 2025, the first such intensive revision in the state since 2003, and the exercise drew court challenges over deletions from the rolls. The Supreme Court then directed the Commission to publish a district-wise, booth-level list of the electors it had removed, with reasons for each deletion, and to accept Aadhaar and EPIC as proof in objections.²³

The Election Commission then set voting for 6 and 11 November 2025, with counting on 14 November. Prashant Kishor's Jan Suraaj Party, contesting without any alliance and fielding candidates in all 243 constituencies, released its first list of 51 candidates including teachers, former bureaucrats and a transgender candidate, campaigning on education and jobs under the party's school-bag symbol.⁴⁵

The NDA then finalised its seat-sharing formula, with the BJP and JD(U) contesting 101 seats each, Chirag Paswan's LJP(Ram Vilas) getting 29 seats, and the Hindustani Awam Morcha and Rashtriya Lok Morcha six seats each — equalising BJP's and JD(U)'s shares for the first time. In Marhaura, the nomination of LJP(Ram Vilas) candidate Seema Singh was rejected, and the NDA extended its support to independent candidate Ankit Kumar there instead.⁶⁷

Tejashwi Yadav was announced as the Mahagathbandhan's chief ministerial face for the election, with Mukesh Sahani projected as the deputy chief ministerial face, formalising RJD leadership of the alliance's campaign.⁸

The Rashtriya Janata Dal, the assembly's largest party after the last election, saw its position collapse this time.

The single biggest movement ran from RJD to JD(U), covering 31 of the 113 seats that changed hands.

BJP itself grew from 74 seats to 89 seats this time.

Turnout, the share of registered voters who actually cast a ballot, climbed +10.1 pp from the previous election.

The closest race was at Sandesh, Bihar, decided by a margin — how far ahead the winner finished, in votes, over whoever came second — of 27 votes.

Bankipur, Bihar saw the widest margin of the election, with the winner finishing 33.1% ahead of the runner-up.

Kasba, Bihar recorded the highest turnout of any seat, 82.0%, and also drew the most candidates, 22.

Digha, Bihar was the largest constituency by registered voters, with 4,58,367 on its rolls.

NOTA — None of the Above, a ballot option letting voters formally reject every candidate on offer — drew 9,10,730 votes statewide, 1.8% of the total.

Parliament's Bihar Reorganisation Act took effect on 15 November 2000, creating Jharkhand from 18 southern districts and reconstituting Bihar's Legislative Assembly at 243 seats, down from the 324 seats it had held through the 2000 general election, effective for the February 2005 election onward.⁹

The election that February produced no majority for any single party, and a fresh vote that October gave the Janata Dal (United)-Bharatiya Janata Party alliance 143 seats, ending fifteen years of Janata Dal/Rashtriya Janata Dal-led government under Lalu Prasad Yadav and Rabri Devi, and Nitish Kumar was sworn in as Chief Minister on 24 November 2005.¹⁰