Lok Sabha Election Results: NDA wins 30 seats, INDIA bloc settles for 9, Pappu Yadav bags Purnia

In the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections the National Democratic Alliance (NDA)  has won 30 out of the 40 seats in Bihar while INDIA bloc managed to win nine seats. Pappu Yadav won the Purnia seat as an independent candidate.

Within the NDA, JDU and the BJP won 12 seats each, while the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) secured five seats, and the Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) won one seat.

In the INDIA bloc, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) won four seats, the Congress three seats, and the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) two seats.

Nitish Kumar-led Janata Dal (United) won 12 out of the 16 seats they contested while the Bharatiya Janata Party also won as many seats of the 17 seats they contested.

Chirag Paswan-led Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas), which is part of the NDA fold, had a 100 per cent score card as it won all of its five seats. Former Bihar chief minister and founder of Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) Jitan Ram Manjhi, another alliance partner of NDA, won by a margin of over 100,000 votes in Gaya.

Meanwhile, the opposition’s INDIA bloc, comprising the Congress, Rashtriya Janata Dal and Communist Party of India (Marxist Leninist) Liberation, has together managed to win nine seats in Bihar.

While the Congress secured three seats including retaining Kishanganj from 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the RJD won four seats including key constituency Patliputra, where Lalu Prasad Yadav’s daughter Misa Bharti contested.

Compared to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the NDA’s tally in Bihar decreased by nine seats. The JD(U) lost four seats in Kishanganj, Katihar, Purnia, and Jahanabad, while the BJP faced defeat in Patliputra, Arrah, Buxar, Aurangabad, and Sasaram. However, the LJP (R) managed to win all five seats it contested.

Vote Percentage

The Election Commission’s website showed that party-wise, the RJD bagged the biggest vote share at over 22 per cent by securing more 9.5 million votes. The BJP stood second in the list at 20.52 per cent vote share and over 8.8 million votes. Bihar’s Purnia was the lone seat to be grabbed by an independent candidate, Pappu Yadav, who won by a margin of over 23,000.

The RJD had fielded its candidates on 26 seats out of the 40 constituencies while the Congress on nine seats.

NDA fails to repeat 2019 performance

In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the NDA swept Bihar, winning 39 out of the 40 seats. The BJP won 17 seats, JDU claimed 16, and LJP took home 6 seats. Congress managed to win just one seat, while the RJD, led by Tejashwi Yadav, failed to win any.

The 2014 general elections presented a different scenario. The BJP, not allied with JDU at the time, emerged as the largest party in Bihar, winning 23 seats. Its ally, LJP, won 6 seats. JDU, which contested alone, managed only 2 seats. The Congress, part of the Mahagathbandhan, won 2 seats. This starkly contrasts with 2019, where the NDA’s united front resulted in a near-total sweep.

Prominent winners and losers

Misa Bharti, RJD candidate and elder daughter of party supremo Lalu Prasad, won the Patliputra Lok Sabha seat, defeating her nearest rival Ram Kripal Yadav of BJP by a margin of over 85,000 votes. Misa Bharti secured 6,13,283 votes, whereas, her nearest rival BJP’s Yadav secured 528109 votes.

However, Rohini Acharya, Lalu’s other daughter who was an RJD nominee from Saran Lok Sabha constituency, lost by over 13,661 votes to BJP’s Rajiv Pratap Rudy.

In the Arrah Lok Sabha seat, BJP leader and Union minister RK Singh lost his seat by over 59,808 votes to Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) (Liberation)’s Sudama Prasad.

Raja Ram Singh of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) (Liberation) won Karakat Lok Sabha seat by defeating Bhojpuri singer and independent candidate, Pawan Singh, by a margin of over 1,05858 votes.

By winning all the five Lok Sabha seats his party was allotted in the NDA alliance, Chirag has not only maintained LJP’s previous track record of keeping 100% strike rate but also established that he is the new Dalit icon on the political landscape of Bihar. In 2019 polls, LJP under Ram Vilas had won all the six seats that were allotted to the party under the seat-sharing pact.

Bharatiya Janata Party’s Ravi Shankar Prasad won the Patna Sahib Lok Sabha constituency. He defeated Congress’ Anshul Avijit with a margin of 1,53,846.

Bharatiya Janata Party’s Giriraj Singh won the Begusarai Lok Sabha constituency against CPI’s Abdhesh Kumar Roy with a margin of 81,480 seats.

In the 2019 election also, Giriraj Singh won with 687,577 votes. The runner-up was Kanhaiya Kumar of the Communist Party of India (CPI), with a victory margin of 419,660 votes.