Bihar assembly election 2025: Voting dates out today, know political equations

DAtes for the 243-seat Bihar assemblage election 2025 ar go down to be proclaimed anytime at present as the new Vidhan Sabha has to be constituted by November 22. Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar led a three-day tour and series of meetings in Bihar, concluding in October 5.Follow Live Updates on Bihar assembly election 2025Here's a total recall of what happened last time, and what are the equations now:NDA, INDIA bloc main players in Bihar assembly election 2025The Janata Dal (United) or JDU of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and its lead partner Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), plus Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) or HAM, and other allies forming the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), are looking to retain power.Also read | Detailed coverage of the Bihar assembly polls: Dates, results, trendsThe Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) of Tejashwi Yadav, along with the Indian National Congress (INC) and others forming the INDIA bloc, hopes to unseat Nitish Kumar, who has served nine terms as CM, not all of which he has completed.Also read | Opinion: How the battle of the parties stacks up in BiharPrime Minister Narendra Modi has been a major force for the BJP in state election campaigns too, while Rahul Gandhi of the Congress has also focused on Bihar over the past few months.Prashant Kishor is new, Chirag has new stanceA new entrant being watched in the Bihar assembly election 2025 is the Jan Suraaj Party (JSP) of former poll strategist Prashant Kishor, who has started his full-time political career from his native state of Bihar. Prashant Kishor says Jan Suraaj Party will contest all 243 seats.The number required for the majority in the Bihar assembly is 122.Chirag Paswan of the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) is an ally of the BJP at the Centre. Chirag is a minister in the NDA government at the Centre. His LJP contested the 2020 Bihar assembly polls on his own but could not make a big impact. The LJP has split since with Chirag Paswan’s uncle Pashupati Paras leading another faction. Chirag Paswan now hopes to become “kingmaker” in case of a hung verdict.Other parties in the fray as part of alliances or otherwise include the Rashtriya Lok Samta Party, the Vikassheel Insaan Party; and the Left parties among which the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist)-Liberation or CPI(ML)-L is the most prominent in Bihar.Who has how many MLAs as of 2025?The BJP, which has two deputy CMs in Samrat Choudhary and Vijay Kumar Sinha, is the largest party after a lot of political swings since the 2020 Bihar elections. BJP has 78 MLAs as of August 2025. The JDU has 45 MLAs, while other allies of the NDA, including some RJD rebels, come to nine, taking its total to 132, much above the majority number of 122.The RJD — founded by former deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav’s father, former CM Lalu Prasad Yadav — leads the opposition Mahagathbandhan (‘grand alliance’) with 75 seats. It was the single largest party after the 2020 Bihar election results, but defections and byelections changed that later as the BJP number went up to 78.The Indian National Congress (INC) has 19 MLAs, while the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist)-Liberation or CPI(ML)-L has 12 members in the Bihar Vidhan Sabha.Two other Left parties, CPI and CPI(M), have two MLAs each. Asaduddin Owaisi’s All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) has one MLA.These numbers stood as of August 2025, as Nitish Kumar shifted allegiances after the 2020 elections twice, and MLAs moved with him.Nitish Kumar's flip-flops since 2020In 2020, the NDA got 125 seats, three above the majority mark. Of these, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) got 74 seats in 2020, which was an increase of 21 seats from the 2015 Bihar results; and the Janata Dal (United) got 43 seats, a decrease of 28 compared to 2015. The Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP) won four; and the Hindustani Awam Morcha got seven seats in the 2020 Bihar assembly election.After the 2020 elections, the government was formed thus by the National Democratic Alliance with Nitish Kumar becoming CM yet again.In 2022, Nitish Kumar chose to go back to the RJD-led Mahagathbandhan, with which he had contested and won the 2015 Bihar assembly polls.Two years later, in 2024, Nitish Kumar returned to the NDA fold and formed a new government with the BJP.Who are key faces and which are key seats in Bihar assembly election 2025?Nitish Kumar remains the foremost face of the ruling JDU and NDA, while the BJP’s most prominent faces in the state government are the deputy CMs, Samrat Choudhary and Vijay Kumar Sinha. Speaker Nand Kishore Yadav is also a BJP MLA.Tejashwi Yadav, whose father Lalu Prasad Yadav and mother Rabri Devi both remained CM, served as Nitish Kumar’s deputy CM in the past. Tejashwi is at present the Leader of Opposition in the Bihar assembly.Several key constituencies are expected to be highly contested.Seats held by prominent figures stay under the spotlight. For instance, Harnaut, represented by CM Nitish Kumar, and Raghopur, the seat of RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, are among the most-watched. Other key seats include Mahua, Munger and Bankipur, which have seen high-profile battles in previous elections.The seat-sharing arrangements among the major alliances — the NDA, led by the BJP and JDU, and the INDIA alliance including RJD and Congress — also determine which constituencies become the most critical battlegrounds.While caste, shifting loyalties and socio-economic progress remain key issues, other factors that play their parts in the Bihar assembly elections are: the state of infrastructure, control over law and order, and extent of welfare schemes.The recent Special Intensive Revision of voter rolls has also emerged as a campaign issue for the RJD and Congress. The BJP and JDU are confident that their work over the past few years will see them through.