Nitish Kumar vs BJP: How the numbers stack up in Bihar Assembly

The RJD had emerged as the single-largest party in the 2020 Assembly elections.

With the discomfiture between the BJP and the JD(U) building up for the last two months, we take a look at where the parties stand in the Assembly currently.

The 2020 Assembly polls in Bihar was a tight one with the National Democratic Alliance winning 125 seats, with BJP winning 74 of these, the Janata Dal (United) of Nitish Kumar 43, the Vikassheel Insaan Party 4 and Hindustan Awaam Party (Secular) 4. This put the NDA just above the requisite 122-majority mark needed to form the government.

The RJD and its allies, on the other hand, had won 110 seats. The RJD finished as the single-largest party with 75 seats, while the Congress won a mere 19 seats. Of the 29 seats the Left parties had contested, they won in 16, with the CPI (ML-Liberation) winning 12 of them. Asaduddin Owaisi’s AIMIM had won five seats in the Seemanchal region of the state. Four of its MLAs have switched to the RJD.

In the Bihar House of 242 – down from the total 243 owing to the death of an RJD MLA – this is how the parties rank: BJP (77), JD(U) (45), HAM(S) (4), RJD (79), Congress (19), CPI(M-L) (12), CPI (4), AIMIM (1), Independent (1).

Chirag Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party had won just a single seat.

The BJP’s vote share was 19.5 per cent, the JD(U) won 15.4 per cent, the RJD 23.1 per cent and the Congress 9.5 per cent.