Patna: The main opposition party, RJD, secured the highest vote share in the 2025 Bihar assembly election but still slipped to the third position in the seat tally.
BJP Emerges as Largest Party
While BJP emerged as the largest party by bagging 89 out of 101 seats it contested, RJD ended up at the third position in the seat tally despite its vote share being highest among all political parties.
In the 2025 Bihar assembly election, NDA secured three- fourths majority by getting 202 seats while Mahagathbandhan could bag only 35 seats. BJP emerged as the single largest party with 89 seats, followed by JD (85) and RJD (25). LJP (RV) got 19, Congress-6, AIMIM-5, HAM- 5, RLM-4, CPI (ML) -2 and IIP, CPI (M) and BSP one seat each.
RJD Leads Vote Share but Falls Behind in Seats
According to the Election Commission, RJD secured 23 percent of the vote share, a slight dip from the 23.11 percent vote share it received in the 2020 polls in which it emerged as the single largest party with 75 seats. Around 1.15 crore people voted for RJD candidates in the polls. On the other hand, BJP, which emerged as the single largest party with 89 seats, got 20.08 percent of the votes, up from the 19.46 percent in 2020. As per the poll body, 1,00,811,43 people voted for the BJP. JD (U) got 85 of the 101 seats it contested, with a vote share of 19.25 percent as 96,67,118 people voted in its favour. Its vote share increased significantly, from 15.39 percent in 2020 to 19.25 percent this time.
Contrasting Trends From 2020
In the 2020 Bihar assembly election, NDA had scraped past the majority mark by just three seats and a wafer-thin 0.03 percentage point vote gap over the Mahagathbandhan. In the 2020 polls, NDA vote share was 37.26 percent against Mahagathbandhan`s 37.23 percent. While NDA won 125 seats, only three seats above the majority mark of 122, while Mahagathbandhan finished at 110.
Why RJD Won Votes but Lost Seats
RJD`s highest vote share still bagging few seats is attributed to some significant reasons. The vote consolidation behind the NDA with LJP and RLSP on the alliance`s board raised the higher winning threshold (47.8 percent median), making it difficult for Mahagathbandhan to win seats. The winning threshold refers to the minimum vote share of the party or a candidate to win a seat in the election.
