Bihar Election Results 2025 LIVE Updates: What’s next for Tejashwi Yadav after the RJD debacle

The People’s Democratic Party is on track to capture the Budgam constituency in central Kashmir, a seat long dominated by the National Conference since 1977 and last held by former chief minister Omar Abdullah.

After Omar chose to retain his home constituency and vacated Budgam, a bypoll was triggered—giving PDP’s Aga Muntazir Mehdi a fresh opening. This time, Muntazir built on a year of sustained grassroots presence, gaining a lead of over 5,000 votes against NC’s Aga Syed Mahmood after 13 counting rounds.

The NC, meanwhile, suffered visible internal discord, with influential Srinagar MP Aga Ruhullah Mehdi openly criticising party leadership and refusing to campaign. His absence weakened the party’s outreach, especially among Budgam’s sizeable Shia population. With PDP president Mehbooba Mufti actively campaigning, the party’s likely victory is set to boost its morale despite its small Assembly presence.hrough in Budgam as NC Faces Internal Rift The People’s Democratic Party is on track to capture the Budgam constituency in central Kashmir, a seat long dominated by the National Conference since 1977 and last held by former chief minister Omar Abdullah.

After Omar chose to retain his home constituency and vacated Budgam, a bypoll was triggered—giving PDP’s Aga Muntazir Mehdi a fresh opening. This time, Muntazir built on a year of sustained grassroots presence, gaining a lead of over 5,000 votes against NC’s Aga Syed Mahmood after 13 counting rounds. The NC, meanwhile, suffered visible internal discord, with influential Srinagar MP Aga Ruhullah Mehdi openly criticising party leadership and refusing to campaign. His absence weakened the party’s outreach, especially among Budgam’s sizeable Shia population. With PDP president Mehbooba Mufti actively campaigning, the party’s likely victory is set to boost its morale despite its small Assembly presence.

As the votes rolled in, shock spread through Congress circles from Patna to Delhi. What was expected to be a modestly competitive showing spiraled into a stunning collapse, with the party struggling to secure even a handful of seats. Though many leaders sensed headwinds in the weeks leading up to counting day, few anticipated a meltdown of this scale. Insiders point to the party’s recent pivot toward backward and EBC politics — a strategy meant to counter the NDA — as a key misstep. The shift alienated Congress’s traditional upper-caste supporters without winning over the very groups it aimed to court, many of whom continued to see Nitish Kumar as the more credible option. The result, as one senior leader put it, “just didn’t add up.”

In a remote corner of Goh in Jehanabad — once known for fear and violence in the Lalu Prasad era — an elderly woman halted a campaign convoy with her determined voice: “Chahe koi goli ki dhamki de de… hum Narendra Modi ji ko hi vote denge. Unhone humein ration, makan aur pehchaan di hai.” Her assertion reflects a recurring sentiment on the ground this election season. While analysts in Delhi framed the Bihar contest as a caste arithmetic battle, many voters appeared moved more by welfare delivery and perceived dignity gains. For the NDA, narratives of development, social justice, housing and ration schemes created a strong resonance. The Congress-led alliance, by contrast, struggled to present a coherent alternative, often leaning on defensive or fear-driven messaging. In the resolve of voters like Kunti Devi Paswan — and countless others who felt state support reach their doorsteps — lies an insight into the scale of the NDA surge across Bihar today.

The NDA’s commanding performance in the Bihar Assembly elections has blurred the region-wise dynamics, with an advantage for the ruling coalition in the Mahagathbandhan strongholds of Shahabad and Seemanchal. The Opposition’s failure in Seemanchal, where Muslims form a sizable chunk of the electorate, shows that Rahul Gandhi’s “vote chori (vote theft)” narrative and campaign against the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls did not work.

📌 Seemanchal (comprising Kishanganj, Purnea, Araria, and Katihar)

The NDA is expected to win 10-12 seats, while the Mahagathbandhan could end up with 8-10 constituencies at best. This region has a sizable Muslim population, which may have influenced the voting patterns. The NDA had won 12 seats last time, the AIMIM five, and the Mahagathbandhan seven.

📌 Magadh (Gaya, Aurangabad, Jehanabad, Arwal, Nalanda, and Nawada)

The NDA has a lead in about 30-35 seats, while the Mahagathbandhan trails with 17-22 seats.

📌Shahabad (Bhojpur, Rohtas, Buxar and Kaimur)

A traditional bastion of social justice parties, this region gave 20 out of 22 seats to the Mahagathbandhan in 2020, but this time the ruling coalition appears poised to win 10-12 constituencies.

📌Mithilanchal and Kosi (Over a dozen districts, including Madhubani, Samastipur, Supaul, Madhepura and Saharsa)

The NDA is expected to secure 50-55 seats, leaving the Opposition alliance with 18-23 constituencies.

📌Angika (Bhagalpur, Munger, Banka, and Jamui)

The NDA could well end up with 20-23 seats, while the Mahagathbandhan looks set to bag 7-10 seats.

(Contributed by Santosh Singh)

The Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) punching above its weight (leading on over 20 of the 29 seats it contested) marks a defining moment for Chirag Paswan.

For months, critics argued that the BJP had “over-rewarded” him in seat-sharing. Chirag has not only justified the generous allocation but converted perception into performance, delivering one of the NDA’s highest strike rates. His strong showing signals a shift:

📌Chirag is no longer just Ram Vilas Paswan’s heir — he is now an independent electoral force.

📌Many of the seats given to the LJP(RV) were ones the NDA had previously struggled in.

📌His re-entry into the NDA has brought the alliance a crucial 5-6% Paswan/Dalit vote, contributing significantly to the JD(U)’s massive rebound from 43 seats in 2020 to over 75 leads today.

While the broader NDA wave has buoyed all allies, LJP(RV)’s standout performance reshapes internal dynamics:

📌Chirag gains real bargaining power in government formation.

📌 His success positions him as a potential leader in Bihar’s post-Nitish political era.

📌 It strengthens the NDA’s projection of a broad, socially inclusive coalition.

For a leader once dismissed with “Hanuman politics” jibes, today’s numbers mark a decisive personal and political evolution.

(Contributed by Deeptiman Tiwary )

The Mahagathbandhan, which put up a strong fight in Bihar’s SC-reserved seats in 2020, has been reduced to single digits this election.

Early trends:

NDA leading in 35 of 38 SC seats

Mahagathbandhan ahead in only 3

(Compared to 2020: NDA 21, MGB 17)

Party-wise leads in SC seats:

JD(U): 14 — biggest jump from its 2020 tally of 8

BJP: 11 — set to improve on its 2020 tally of 9

LJP (RV): 6 — dramatic rise after drawing a blank in 2020

HAM(S): 4 RJD: 2 — down from 9 in 2020

Congress: 1 — down from 4

The standout performer is Chirag Paswan’s LJP (RV), leading in 6 of the 8 SC seats it contested, signalling a consolidation of its Dalit Paswan support.

ST seats:

Congress leads in Manihari

RJD leads in Katoria

(2020: Congress won Manihari; BJP won Katoria)

(Contributed by Anjishnu Das)

After having no Muslim MLA in the outgoing Bihar assembly, NDA’s four Muslim candidates are leading as the counting of votes is in progress on 243 seats of Bihar.

Nitish Kumar-led JDU’s three Muslim candidates are leading in Araria (Shagufta Azim), Jokihat (Manzar Alam) and Chainpur (Mohd Zama Khan). Chirag Paswan’s LJP(RV) has fielded only one Muslim candidate—Mohd Kalimuddin and he is leading in Bahadaurganj seat. The BJP, like in 2020, has not fielded any Muslim candidate. Muslims make up 17.7% of Bihar’s population.

In the grand-alliance, RJD’s three muslim candidates are leading in Sursand, Raghunathpur and Rafiganj. The RJD had named 18 Muslims among its 143 candidates, as it did in 2020. Congress’ Muslim candidate Washi Ahmed is leading in Bettiah. The Congress had fielded 10 Muslims – two less than the 2020 polls, when its four Muslim nominees were elected as MLAs. Under Nitish’s leadership, JD(U) claims to enjoy the support of 20% of the Muslim population in the state.

In 2020, the JD(U) had fielded 11 Muslims, but all of them lost. The CPI (ML) Liberation nominated two Muslims among its 20 candidates and one Quyamuddin Ansari was leading in Arrah, as per trends on Election Commission website. Asaduddin Owaisi’s AIMIM that had five Muslim MLAs in previous assembly, its only three Muslim candidates are in leading position in current elections. They are leading in Kochadhaman, Amour and Baisi seats.

(Contributed by Lalmani Verma)

Despite ushering in a new political language, single-handedly making migration an electoral issue, grabbing media headlines, securing significant social media traction, Prashant Kishor’s debut in Bihar elections has come a cropper. His party, the Jan Suraaj, is currently not leading on a single seat in the state.

The party’s lacklustre performance has exposed the limitations of technocratic politics in a largely rural state where voters value proximity and familiarity as much as larger political narratives. The party had given a large number of tickets to doctors, professors, academics and people with good educational standing. Most had no political background. The attempt was to project the party as progressive that could deliver governance rising above caste lines. This, however, appears to have not instilled enough confidence among voters to view Jan Suraaj as an alternative in Bihar.

This crushing defeat makes Jan Suraaj’s road ahead tougher. It may also be a lesson for Kishor that in a complex state as Bihar, you cannot garner significant support merely through innovative campaigns and social media blitzkrieg. Kishor will have to focus on building a grassroots organization over the next five years, groom candidates who work with the people in this period, and then mount a challenge to the established order. As a voter in Motihari said, “I like what Prashant Kishor says. He appears credible, talks with evidence. But it is too new a party. Let his leaders and workers come to us for the next five years, raise our voice, solve our issue, and then we will believe he means business

This crushing defeat makes Jan Suraaj’s road ahead tougher. It may also be a lesson for Kishor that in a complex state as Bihar, you cannot garner significant support merely through innovative campaigns and social media blitzkrieg. Kishor will have to focus on building a grassroots organization over the next five years, groom candidates who work with the people in this period, and then mount a challenge to the established order. As a voter in Motihari said, “I like what Prashant Kishor says. He appears credible, talks with evidence. But it is too new a party. Let his leaders and workers come to us for the next five years, raise our voice, solve our issue, and then we will believe he means business.”

(Contributed by Deeptiman Tiwary)

In one of the more striking subplots of the early Bihar trends, the combined Left is matching, and at moments surpassing, its much larger Mahagathbandhan partner, the Congress.

The CPI(ML) Liberation is currently leading in 7 seats, while the CPI(M) is ahead in 1, putting the Left bloc’s tally on par with the Congress, which is oscillating between 6 and 7 leads. This performance comes despite a wide disparity in seat share: the Congress contested 60 seats, compared to the CPI(ML)’s 20 and CPI(M)’s 4.

The CPI, which fielded candidates in 9 constituencies, is yet to make notable early gains. The Left had won 16 seats in 2020, with CPI(ML) bagging 12 of them, marking its best showing in decades. Today’s neck-and-neck contest with the Congress suggests the Left’s organisational depth and cadre mobilisation remain key pillars of the Mahagathbandhan, even as the broader alliance struggles to convert its vote base uniformly.

(Contributed Jatin Anand)

After eight rounds of counting, AAP’s Harmeet Singh Sandhu has opened up a lead of 3,668 votes with a total of 20,454. SAD’s Sukhwinder Kaur remains in second place with 16,786, while Independent Mandeep Singh Khalsa holds third at 9,162. Congress’s Karanbir Singh has now slipped to fourth with 8,760 votes, and BJP’s Harjit Singh Sandhu trails in fifth.

(Contributed by Kamaldeep Singh Brar)

As per trends this morning, the Congress was reduced to just seven seats in Bihar, with its two topmost leaders also training in their respective constituencies. While Congress Bihar unit president Rajesh Kumar was trailing HAM (S)’s Lalan Ram by 3,721 votes in Kutumba seat, Congress Legislative Party Leader (CLP) Shakeel Ahmad Khan was trailing JD(U)’s Dulal Chandra Goswami by 18,816 votes in Kadwa constituency. Both leaders had won their seats in 2020.

(Contributed by Asad Rehman, Political Bureau)

NDA allies JD(U) and BJP are going neck-and-neck as the alliance continues to surge ahead, early trends suggested.

The biggest revelation is however the Chirag Paswan-led LJP (RV) that is leading in over 15 of the 29 seats it contested. If the trends hold, his political stock could rise, so could his influence in the alliance and position in state govt.

In the Mahagathbandhan, the RJD continues to enjoy primacy as the Congress seems to pull it back, leading only in 13 of the 61 seats it contested, bringing to the fore, the lack of mutual conversion of votes.

The Left too seems to be on the backfoot leading only in 4 of the 20 seats it fielded candidates in, lower than the 12 it won last time.

Debutant VIP also does not seem to be adding much to the Mahagathbandhan even as the IIP seems to be doing well.

Overall, the NDA looks ahead in terms of better social combination and in comparison to Mahagathbandhan’s.

(Santosh Singh)

The Anta bypoll is turning into one of the most charged contests of the day, a tight, triangular battle between BJP’s Morpal Suman, Congress heavyweight Pramod Jain Bhaya, and Congress rebel-turned-Independent Naresh Meena, all drawn into a field of 15 but clearly the only three that matter.

For the ruling BJP, a win would be more than a seat — it would be damage control. The Bhajan Lal Sharma government has been fielding criticism over administrative friction, underscored by Chief Secretary Sudhansh Pant’s abrupt move back to the Centre. A victory here would steady the ship. For Vasundhara Raje, this is personal turf. After years of being sidelined, she has jumped into the campaign — and Anta lies on the edge of her Jhalawar stronghold. A loss would embolden rivals eager to write her off.

For the Congress, Bhaya’s win would revive a sluggish state unit and hand Ashok Gehlot a symbolic boost, with the candidate widely seen as aligned to the former CM. But perhaps the fiercest stakes belong to Naresh Meena, the serial rebel who has derailed Congress chances twice before. A win today would be his moment of vindication — proof, his supporters argue, that the party kept him out because it feared how high he could rise. Anta may be a bypoll, but its political temperature is anything but small.

(Courtesy Hamza Khan)

In Tarn Taran, the numbers are shifting fast.

AAP’s Harmeet Singh Sandhu has pulled ahead after Round 5, clocking 11,727 votes, with SAD candidate Sukhwinder Kaur trailing narrowly at 11,540, a razor-thin 187-vote margin. Congress’s Karanbir Singh remains a distant third, while Independent candidate Mandeep Singh Khalsa, the face of anti-Badal Akali factions, holds fourth. But beneath the arithmetic lies a far more consequential fight.

This bypoll has become a referendum on the fractured Shiromani Akali Dal universe. Mandeep Singh, backed by multiple panthic groups, carries the emotional weight of his imprisoned brother Sandeep Singh Sunny, a symbolic figure in anti-Badal circles following a controversial jail incident that galvanised human rights advocates and victims’ families.

The contest is now a measure of who commands the Panthic pulse: — SAD (Badal) leaning on organisational muscle and its “Dharmi Fauji” legacy, vs. — Akali breakaway formations, buoyed by sentiment, martyr politics, and the wider panthic consolidation visible since Amritpal Singh’s 2024 Lok Sabha victory. AAP’s narrow lead may dominate the numbers board, but politically, Tarn Taran is testing the future of Akali politics ahead of 2027 — and signaling which faction still speaks for Sikh voters.

On the ground in Bihar, the early counting trends are producing a familiar but still fluid picture.

- BJP and JD(U) are running neck and neck, each trading marginal leads across rounds. The RJD, which emerged as the single largest party in the last Assembly polls, is lagging behind in the chase to repeat that performance, though officials caution it’s far too early to draw hard conclusions from first-hour data.

- Within the Mahagathbandhan, the Congress remains the weak link, struggling to open strong leads in the seats it contested. Meanwhile, LJP (Ram Vilas) is slowly picking up traction, posting early movements that the NDA will be watching closely, given Chirag Paswan’s role in the alliance’s social arithmetic.

- It is still early, margins remain thin, and several rounds of EVM counting are yet to land, but the competitive BJP–JD(U) race is emerging as the story to watch.

As Bihar’s ballots are tallied and early trends favour the NDA, five storylines are shaping the day, each with the power to tilt the post-poll landscape.

The Nitish Kumar Question With JD(U) and BJP contesting an equal 101 seats, Nitish is no longer the senior partner by default. His leadership strength now hinges on how decisively the NDA wins, and how JD(U) performs relative to the BJP.

The Prashant Kishor Test Jan Suraaj’s debut is not a question of seats alone. Its vote share will reveal whether Kishor can carve a third space or fade as a one-cycle experiment. Even a modest dent in close contests could redefine futures.

Congress’s Struggle for Relevance Sixty seats. A Rahul Gandhi Yatra. And a party fighting invisibility. Today decides whether the Congress gains bargaining power, or becomes further peripheral to Bihar’s caste-driven politics.

VIP & IIP: Small Allies, Big Impact Mukesh Sahani’s VIP and I.P. Gupta’s IIP hold the key to EBC mobilisation. Their vote shares will show if the Mahagathbandhan successfully expanded its base, or miscalculated its coalition math.

Chirag Paswan’s High-Stakes Bet Given 29 seats despite a lone win last time, Chirag must prove his 2024 Lok Sabha “strike rate” wasn’t a fluke. A strong showing boosts his clout in the NDA; a weak one hands JD(U) ammunition to contain him.

Stay with us, these five threads will determine not just who wins, but who wields power next.

As early trends place the NDA ahead in the Bihar 2025 results, the ruling coalition’s three strategic pillars are clearly visible. Nitish Kumar’s political capital, a decisive women’s vote, and a favourable social arithmetic.

The NDA entered the polls buoyed by exit surveys and anchored its campaign on Nitish’s long incumbency, the “dashazari” Mukhyamantri Mahila Rojgar Yojana, and the return of allies Chirag Paswan and Upendra Kushwaha, together adding critical caste breadth. Women outvoting men by nearly nine percentage points has strengthened NDA’s confidence, with the Jeevika-linked entrepreneurship scheme emerging as the centrepiece of its pitch.

Meanwhile, the social coalition, Kurmis, EBCs, and the Paswan and Kushwaha bases—has given the alliance a structural edge. With Nitish fronting 84 rallies and carrying the bulk of the campaign load, today’s mandate will test whether his two-decade-long governance model and welfare strategy can once again deliver victory.

Samrat Choudhary, the Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar and the NDA candidate from Tarapur (Munger district), is currently leading in his constituency as counting progresses. In a recent interview, he stated unabashedly that Nitish Kumar will remain Chief Minister if the NDA returns to power — “no two ways about it.”

For those of you just tuning in!

As counting begins across the state, we bring you clear, steady, and continuous updates to help you understand not just who is leading, but why the trends are emerging the way they are.

Today’s verdict will test the strength of both alliances. The NDA leans on Nitish Kumar’s long political experience, its outreach to women voters, and a broadened caste coalition reinforced by allies like the LJP (Ram Vilas) and RLM. On the other side, the Mahagathbandhan bets on Tejashwi Yadav’s energy, an expanded social coalition, and the potential impact of Prashant Kishor’s Jan Suraaj on Bihar’s political equations.

Stay with us as we break down constituency-wise shifts, voter patterns, key battles, and what the final numbers could mean for Bihar’s political future. The day promises close contests, decisive margins, and many turning points—and we’re here to guide you through every one of them.