Narendra Modi’s ruling alliance secured a decisive victory in a key state election, bolstering the Indian prime minister and his Hindu nationalist party after a reduced mandate in last year’s national poll.
The National Democratic Alliance won 202 of the 243 seats in Bihar’s assembly, comfortably above the 122 required for a majority.
Mr Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party won 89 seats while its chief ally, the Janata Dal United of state chief minister Nitish Kumar, won 85. Three smaller allies together took 29 seats.
Bihar is one of India’s poorest states but its population of about 130 million, which makes it the third most-populous state, gives it considerable influence on national politics.
The eastern state sends one of the largest blocs of lawmakers to the lower house of India’s parliament and is widely seen as a bellwether for what is known as the Hindi heartland. Control of the state often shapes national political narratives and carries significant symbolic weight.
The state has been led for nearly two decades by Mr Kumar, 74, a key ally of Mr Modi.
The opposition Congress party contested the election as part of an alliance with regional heavyweight Rashtriya Janata Dal, but won just six seats, the party’s worst performance in the state since 2010. The RJD secured 25 seats and smaller allies added another four to the tally.
In his victory speech, Mr Modi thanked Bihar’s voters and accused the Congress of indulging in “appeasement politics” to court the Muslim-Yadav base, a longstanding coalition of minority religious and caste groups considered the core support base of the RJD.
“We are the servants of the people. We keep making the people happy with our hard work, and we have stolen the hearts of the people,” he said.
“And that is why the entire Bihar has said, ‘Once again, NDA.’”
Taking a swipe at the RJD, which ruled Bihar from 1990 to 2005, he said: “When I used to speak about jungle raj and katta sarkar in Bihar elections, the RJD raised no objections. But it hurt the people of Congress. Today, I want to reiterate that Katta Sarkar will never return to Bihar. The people of Bihar have voted for Viksit Bihar.”
The phrase “jungle raj” is commonly used in Indian political discourse to attack rival parties by suggesting lawlessness or misrule. “Katta sarkar” is a colloquial phrase referring to a crude, locally made firearm, which implies the same thing as “jungle raj”.
“Viksit Bharat” is a campaign slogan used by Mr Modi and his party to refer to their aim to make India a developed nation by 2047.
बिहार के प्रचंड जनादेश को हृदय से आभार!
— BJP Bihar (@BJP4Bihar) November 14, 2025
यह जीत जनता के अटूट विश्वास और सुशासन की विजय है। मोदी जी का ‘बिहार-स्टाइल’ सेलिब्रेशन जनता के भरोसे की गूंज है, जो एक बार फिर NDA के साथ खड़ी है।#NDA_कहे_आभार_बिहार pic.twitter.com/xoaw2hSErQ
The victory in Bihar marks a dramatic turnaround for Mr Modi following the loss of outright parliamentary majority for his party in last year’s national election. He now relies on coalition partners, including Mr Kumar, to stay in office.
In the year and a half since the parliamentary election, however, Mr Modi’s party has regained ground by winning several key state contests, indicating a restoration of its political footing.
Rahul Gandhi, the figurehead of the opposition alliance, called the Bihar result “surprising” and alleged that the election “was not fair from the very beginning”.
“I express my heartfelt gratitude to those millions of voters in Bihar who expressed their trust in the Mahagathbandhan,” he said, referring to the opposition alliance.
“This result in Bihar is truly surprising. We could not achieve victory in an election that was not fair from the very beginning. This fight is for the protection of the Constitution and democracy. The Congress Party and the INDIA alliance will deeply review this result and make their efforts to save democracy even more effective.”
मैं बिहार के उन करोड़ों मतदाताओं का हार्दिक आभार व्यक्त करता हूं, जिन्होंने महागठबंधन पर अपना विश्वास जताया।
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) November 14, 2025
बिहार का यह परिणाम वाकई चौंकाने वाला है। हम एक ऐसे चुनाव में जीत हासिल नहीं कर सके, जो शुरू से ही निष्पक्ष नहीं था।
यह लड़ाई संविधान और लोकतंत्र की रक्षा की है। कांग्रेस…
Mr Gandhi’s campaign focused heavily on “vote chori”, meaning vote theft, accusing the Election Commission of facilitating manipulation of electoral rolls to benefit Mr Modi’s party.
“We feared that making ‘vote chori’ the lynchpin of the party’s campaign was a risky gambit because there were enough indications that we were faring poorly, even if no one expected a result this bad. Now, the BJP will completely discredit the ‘vote chori’ campaign,” a senior Congress functionary in the state told ThePrint.
In the run-up to the election, opposition parties accused the Election Commission of excluding genuine voters, particularly Muslims, from its revised rolls, a charge denied by both the commission and the BJP.
The revision is part of a wider update of voter lists underway in a dozen states and federally administered territories.
Nearly 10 per cent of Bihar’s 74 million voters were removed during the revision which the election body maintained was necessitated by large-scale migration of labourers and non-reporting of deaths.
Political analysts said women voters played an outsized role in the Bihar result. In September, the prime minister authorised a transfer of about £750m to millions of women under a state employment and welfare programme.
Indian women are voting in increasingly larger numbers, reversing a male-dominated electorate.
Amitabh Tiwari, a political strategist who travelled across Bihar during the election, said it was “just the women” who were likely to deliver the ruling alliance a stronger mandate than in the previous election.
A survey conducted by Mr Tiwari’s VoteVibe agency found the NDA securing 48.5 per cent of the female vote, more than 10 percentage points ahead of the main opposition bloc.
Nearly 71.6 per cent of the eligible women voters turned out, the highest female participation ever in Bihar.
The campaign unfolded against a backdrop of concerns about unemployment, fears over law-and-order, and allegations of irregularities in the revision of electoral rolls.
Almost all parties staged mass rallies across the state, with Mr Modi and opposition leaders appealing directly to voters through welfare pledges and personal outreach.
The result in Bihar is expected to influence state elections next year in Assam, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu. The BJP currently governs only Assam.
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