RJD tops the seat count in a hung Bihar election
What happened
The Rashtriya Janata Dal won more seats than any other party in Bihar, but no single party crossed the majority mark.
It won 75 of the 243 seats.
That was 23.1% of the vote.
That was short of the 122-seat majority mark, leaving the assembly hung — a result where no single party wins enough seats to govern alone.
The Bharatiya Janata Party finished a close second, with 74 seats on 19.5% of the vote.
The campaign
On 25 September 2020 the Election Commission announced a three-phase schedule for the Bihar assembly election, with polling on 28 October, 3 November and 7 November, and counting on 10 November.1
Ahead of the polls, the Lok Janshakti Party, led by Chirag Paswan, quit the NDA, saying it would contest every seat against the JD(U) but field no candidates against the BJP.2
On 7 October the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha opted out of the Mahagathbandhan, the RJD-led alliance, citing disagreements over seat sharing.3
The next day, on 8 October, Upendra Kushwaha's front merged with a three-party bloc that included the Bahujan Samaj Party to form the Grand Democratic Secular Front, which also fielded AIMIM candidates.4
On 22 October the BJP released its manifesto, unveiled by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, promising 19 lakh jobs and free Covid-19 vaccination once a vaccine reached mass production, a pledge that drew criticism from opposition parties.5
- 1Election Commission Announces Three-Phase Bihar Schedule — 2020 Bihar Legislative Assembly election
- 2Chirag Paswan's LJP Quits the NDA — 2020 Bihar Legislative Assembly election
- 3Jharkhand Mukti Morcha Opts Out of the Mahagathbandhan — 2020 Bihar Legislative Assembly election
- 4Grand Democratic Secular Front Formed — 2020 Bihar Legislative Assembly election
- 5BJP Manifesto Promises 19 Lakh Jobs and Free Covid-19 Vaccine — BJP manifesto for Bihar promises free Covid vaccine, receives widespread criticism, Bihar election 2020: BJP manifesto promises 19 lakh jobs, free Covid vaccine to everyone
What changed
The RJD lost the most ground of any party this election, with seats slipping to the BJP.
It lost 23 of the 126 seats that changed hands across the state.
The RJD's own total slipped from 80 to 75 seats.
It remained the single largest party for 2 elections running.
Turnout, the share of registered voters who actually cast a ballot, held almost steady, up +0.4 pp from the previous election to about 57.2%.
Notable numbers
Hilsa, Bihar saw the tightest finish of the election: the winner's margin — how far ahead the winner finished, in votes, over whoever came second — was 12 votes.
Agiaon, Bihar saw the widest margin of the election, with the winner finishing 34.5% of the vote ahead of the runner-up.
Korha, Bihar recorded the highest turnout of any seat, 67.4%.
Digha, Bihar was the largest constituency by registered voters, with 4,60,868 on its rolls.
Gaighat, Bihar drew the most candidates of any seat, 31 names on the ballot.
NOTA — None of the Above, a ballot option letting voters formally reject every candidate on offer — drew 7,06,252 votes statewide, 1.7% of the total.
The backdrop
Parliament's Bihar Reorganisation Act took effect on 15 November 2000, creating Jharkhand from 18 southern districts and reconstituting Bihar's assembly at 243 seats from the 2005 election onward.6
After a hung February 2005 result, a fresh election that October-November ended fifteen years of Janata Dal and Rashtriya Janata Dal-led government, and Nitish Kumar was sworn in as Chief Minister on 24 November 2005.7
- 6Bihar Reorganisation Act Creates Jharkhand — Bihar Reorganisation Act, 2000
- 7NDA's Late-2005 Win Ends 15 Years of RJD Rule — February 2005 Bihar Legislative Assembly election, October 2005 Bihar Legislative Assembly election