Bihar Report Card: RJD-Cong Outperform BJP, JDU In Vote Share In Lok Sabha Polls

While the RJD and the Congress might have failed to win big in Bihar in the Lok Sabha elections, the parties should be happy with the fact that both parties have increased their vote share.

The NDA secured 31 out of 40 seats in Bihar. However, their overall vote share has dipped. The victory margins of their candidates have also narrowed significantly. Both parties saw declines of more than 3.5 per cent each in their respective vote shares.

The RJD's vote share has surged by over 6 per cent.

Performance Of Parties

JDU performed better than BJP in Bihar, losing only 4 of its 16 seats. In contrast, BJP lost 5 out of 17 seats. JDU has thus positioned itself as a crucial player at the Centre but has seen a greater dip in vote share compared to BJP.

BJP's vote share fell to 20.5 per cent, a decline of 3.5 per cent from 2019. JDU's vote share also dropped by 3.75 per cent, settling at around 18.52 per cent. The LJP, which contested one less seat but won all five of its constituencies, saw its vote share decrease from 8 per cent in 2019 to 6.5 per cent now.

The RJD, despite winning only 4 seats, has improved from 15.7 per cent in 2019 to 22.14 per cent, making it the single-largest party in Bihar by vote share. The Congress, which contested in alliance with RJD, saw a marginal vote share increase from 7.9% in 2019 to 9.2 per cent now.

Victory Margins

It may be recalled that the NDA alliance had won 25 seats with victory margins exceeding 2 lakh votes in 2019. Of these, 13 seats were won by margins over 3 lakh votes. This year, they managed such margins in only two seats: Araria and Muzaffarpur.

The smallest victory margin was in Saran, where BJP's Rajiv Pratap Rudy defeated Lalu Prasad's daughter Rohini Acharya by just over 13,600 votes. The largest margin was in Muzaffarpur, where BJP's Raj Bhushan Chaudhary won by nearly 2.35 lakh votes against Congress's Ajay Nishad.