Bihar Poll Shock: RJD Falters Despite Strong Support Base

The Bihar election has delivered an unexpected jolt to the Tejashwi Yadav-led RJD. Contesting 143 seats, the party finds itself ahead in barely 32 - a dramatic slide for a political outfit that just five years ago emerged as the single largest party in the state.

For the RJD, it's a déjà vu moment, and not a pleasant one. This performance is on track to become its second-worst in two decades. The last time the party sank this low was in 2005, when Nitish Kumar stormed into Bihar's political scene with a powerful NDA wave. Back then, RJD, under Rabri Devi's leadership, was battling severe anti-incumbency, as public mood shifted decisively toward change. Nitish, aligned with the BJP, capitalised on that sentiment and dismantled 15 years of RJD rule.

But the real low came in 2010, when the RJD's tally crashed to just 22 seats. Today's numbers seem to echo that slide, even as the political landscape has gone through countless twists - Nitish Kumar switching sides multiple times, alliances breaking and re-forming, equations shifting as fast as they were made.

Yet, there's a twist. Even as the JD(U)-BJP combine surges ahead, the RJD surprisingly holds the highest vote share among all parties this time. That means the party is winning big where it wins, but losing far too many close battles. The leads suggest narrow margins have cost Tejashwi dearly - a classic case of votes not turning into seats.

If the trends hold, the NDA is cruising toward another solid victory, while the RJD is left to grapple with a stinging reality: strong numbers on paper, but not enough seats in the Assembly. Twenty years after the party first fell from power, Bihar's political wheel seems to have turned a full circle.