Patna (15.11.2025): The Bihar Assembly elections have pulled the rug beneath Mahagathbandhan with National Democratic Alliance (NDA)-led by Nitish Kumar making a clean sweep by winning 202 seats to fix the former’s tally to sub fifty zone, 34 to be precise. All the claims made by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and RJD leader Tejaswi Yadav fell flat but the most interesting story is that neither the Congress can blame the RJD nor vice versa. The entire alliance including CPI (ML) and CPI is routed in the Bihar elections.

In a 243-member Assembly, a party or an alliance requires 122 seats to form the government. The BJP with the biggest ever tally got 89 seats, JD (U) 85, RJD 25 and the Congress six. AIMIM that was demanding six seats in Mahagathbandhan repeated its last election’s performance by winning five seats but the performance of Left political parties remained dismal. This appears to be a watershed moment not only for Bihar politics but for the politics of the country as well. This may force many leaders for some course correction. The factors that seem to be responsible for the hands down victory of NDA and electoral humiliation of Mahagathbandhan are as follows.

Tejaswi’s insistence on CM’s nomination

Despite alliance partners especially the Congress’ reluctance to declare RJD leader Tejaswi Yadav as chief ministerial candidate, his insistence seems to have made others not only annoyed but complacent too. This has also not gone down well with the workers of the alliance partners. Fence sitters and those who were looking for change in the government also got apprehensive with the RJD if the party wants the power for the people of Bihar or for the family. The behaviour of Lalu Prasad unanimously declaring tickets and Tejaswi announcing to contest all 243 seats alone reinforced doubts of people of Bihar about their intentions.

Vote Chori allegations: A flop show

Three press conferences on Vote Chori and Voter Adhikar Yatra by Rahul Gandhi proved to be flop shows in these elections which was the main poll plank of the Congress even before the Bihar elections were announced. The problem with RaGA and his team is that instead of deciding the nature of the poll campaign by reading the pulse of the state, they have been trying to offer something which was not at all the problem or the concern of the voters. The organisational structure is another issue that the Congress doesn’t have by its side to complement Rahul Gandhi.

The media management of NDA

Despite many instances where behaviour of Bihar Chief Minister was reckless, the NDA did not allow this to become prime time debate. Besides the chasm that the BJP doesn’t want Nitish to be the CM was also not allowed to be highlighted and these were the times when Columbia and other visits of Rahul Gandhi were making headlines. The family matters of Tejaswi with his differences with Tej Pratap, Misa Bharati and Rohini Acharya on the issue of interference of Sanjay Yadav in the party affairs made headlines in the media.

RJD failed to come out of its MY image

The Muslim-Yadav combine that had been the winning composition of the RJD appears to have become bane for the party as it polarised Hindu voters on one hand and drove away rest of the OBCs from the RJD on the other. The NDA coined its own MY factor with Mahila (women) and Youth at the Centre. The RJD itself made it 37 per cent and the rest. Moreover, some of its leaders speaking against Hindu culture had not gone down well even with a section of Yadav voters.

24 X 7 X 365 verses part-time politics

When everyone enjoys a break from politics, the Modi-Shah still remain involved in politics. Their every decision has some politics that can benefit their brand of politics be it Special Intensive Revision (SIR) or introduction of Waqf Amendment Act or Bill to law making it compulsory for the Prime Minister, Chief Ministers and Cabinet Ministers in the Union government or the state to resign if in jail for a month besides other narratives like driving infiltrators out of the country to other managing caste equations. This gave the NDA an edge over its rivals who quite often hit a self-goal to add to the NDA.

SIR proves to be a game changer

With around 69 lakh voters removed from the voters lists of Bihar after SIR, the BJP managed to send a message to people across Bihar that only removal of fake voters from the voter list can help to ensure free and fair elections. This message was for its own supporters and floating voters. This seems to have done the trick for the NDA by increasing the vote percentage up to 10 per cent which is unprecedented on any count.

The Red terror eliminated gave confidence

Elimination of the Red terror network, Gaya and Jahanabad region in case of Bihar, was also an important factor as people from this region were afraid of Naxal and were not voting in big numbers. These elections have a different story to tell with people from the shrinking Red Corridor region coming out to vote in big numbers. The women folks of this region were upbeat with the new found freedom from the fear. The voting percentage tells the tale with seats of CPI (ML), CPI (M) and CPI going down considerably from the last elections.

The Prasant Kishor fiasco

Prashant Kishor spoke against seasoned politicians like Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad of Bihar who appear to be completely detached from the ground reality. He was trying to do a Delhi in Bihar but he seems to have miscalculated the political behaviour of people of Bihar. He is nowhere and Nitish Kumar surprised with the second highest seat tally after the BJP for whom Kishor predicted that he would not cross even 25 seats.