2015 Bihar Legislative Assembly election

2015 Bihar Legislative Assembly election
← 2010 12 October 2015 (2015-10-12) – 5 November 2015 (2015-11-05) 2020 →
All 243 seats of the Bihar Legislative Assembly
122 seats needed for a majority
Turnout56.91% (Increase4.18%)
  Majority party Minority party Third party
 
Leader Lalu Prasad Yadav Nitish Kumar Sushil Modi
Party RJD JD(U) BJP
Alliance MGB MGB NDA
Leader since 1997 2005 2005
Leader's seat Did not contest MLC MLC
Last election 22 115 91
Seats won 80 71 53
Seat change Increase 58 Decrease 44 Decrease 38
Popular vote 6,995,509 6,416,414 9,308,015
Percentage 18.4% 16.8% 24.4%
Swing Decrease 0.44% Decrease 5.81% Increase 7.94%
  Fourth party
 
Leader Ashok Chaudhary
Party INC
Alliance MGB
Last election 4
Seats won 27
Seat change Increase 23
Popular vote 2,539,638
Percentage 6.7%
Swing Decrease 1.68%
Chief Minister before election

Nitish Kumar
Janata Dal (United)

Elected Chief Minister

Nitish Kumar
Janata Dal (United)

The Legislative Assembly election was held over five phases in Bihar through October–November 2015 before the end of the tenure of the prior Legislative Assembly of Bihar on 29 November 2015.[1][2]

In April 2015, the Janata Parivar Alliance group (a group of six parties – Samajwadi Party, Janata Dal (United), Rashtriya Janata Dal, Janata Dal (Secular), Indian National Lok Dal and Samajwadi Janata Party (Rashtriya))[3][4] announced their intention to fight the election, with Nitish Kumar as their Chief Ministerial candidate. The Janta Parivar was joined by the Indian National Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party.[5] This coalition was restructured as Mahagatabandhan when the Samajwadi Party, Janata Dal (Secular), Indian National Lok Dal and Samajwadi Janata Party (Rashtriya) departed from the Janata Parivar Alliance.

The Bharatiya Janata Party-led NDA fought the election alongside the Lok Janshakti Party, the Rashtriya Lok Samata Party and Hindustani Awam Morcha.[6][7][8]

Six left parties fought jointly, independently from both of the two main blocs.[9][10]

This election saw the highest voter turnout in Bihar assembly polls since 2000, with a 56.8% voter turnout in this election.[11] The RJD emerged as a single largest party with 80 seats, followed by JD (U) with 71 seats and BJP with 53 seats. In terms of vote share, BJP came first with 24.4%, followed by RJD with 18.4% and JD (U) with 16.8% and Congress got 6.7%.[12]

Bihar
  1. ^ "Amit Shah sets Mission 185+ for Bihar BJP in 2015 Assembly Polls". Bihar Prabha. Retrieved 24 January 2015.
  2. ^ "Bihar Assembly Elections 2015: Jitan Ram Manjhi has become 'announcement minister', says Sushil Modi". india.com. February 2015. Retrieved 1 February 2015.
  3. ^ "6 Parties of Janata Parivar Announce Merger, Mulayam Singh Yadav to be Chief of New Party". NDTV.com.
  4. ^ Jha, Srinand (16 April 2015). "Six parties unite to form Janata Parivar; Mulayam is the new party chief". hindustantimes.com. Archived from the original on 15 April 2015.
  5. ^ "Analysis: Advantage Janata Parivar, but it's a long fight ahead". Hindustan Times. Archived from the original on 9 June 2015.
  6. ^ "Bihar election: BJP starts campaign, wins over Manjhi to its camp". The Times of India. 12 June 2015.
  7. ^ Tiwari, Ravish. "Bihar elections 2015: BJP needs to reach out to Mahadalits". The Economic Times.
  8. ^ "Rise of Janata parivar". Deccan Herald. 19 April 2015.
  9. ^ Catch News. Voters dissatisfied with Nitish & Lalu will choose us, not BJP, says CPI(ML) chief
  10. ^ "Left parties to contest all 243 Bihar Assembly seats". India Today. Patna. Indo-Asian News Service. 24 July 2015. Retrieved 25 July 2015.
  11. ^ "Bihar sees highest turnout in 15 years". The Times of India. 6 November 2015.
  12. ^ "In Bihar, BJP fails to win, but tops vote share". The Times of India. 10 November 2015.