Bihar Elections: What Happened and Who Won

Bihar Election: Data Shows Women Voters Gave NDA the Edge

Decoding Bihar: Beyond the Headlines

The Bihar Assembly Elections of 2025 are done, and the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has secured another term. The headlines are blaring about seat counts and political alliances, but let's cut through the noise and look at what the data actually tells us. Initial reports suggest the NDA is projected to win over 160 seats, with the BJP emerging as the single-largest party. That's a headline. But the real story, as always, is buried in the details.

One figure jumps out: the differential in voter turnout between men and women. Bihar recorded nearly 67% voter turnout overall, the highest since 1951, and a significant 9.6% jump from the previous election. But drill down, and you find that 71.6% of women voted, compared to just 62.8% of men. That's a spread of 8.8 percentage points. Now, is that just an interesting factoid, or a potential key to understanding the outcome?

JD(U), a key NDA partner, seems to have particularly benefited from this surge in female participation. Their vote share jumped to 23.8% in districts with high female turnout, compared to just 15.7% in districts with gender parity. That's a difference of over 8 percentage points – a substantial edge in a closely contested election. Did JD(U)'s "welfare outreach to women voters," as some reports claim, actually deliver a decisive advantage? It certainly looks that way. (The exact nature of this “outreach” remains vague in most reports, by the way).

The Gender Gap and the Political Landscape

We're seeing a consistent pattern here. The Samajwadi Party, for example, alleges that the BJP distributed ₹10,000 into women’s accounts before the election. Whether true or not (and that claim needs verification), the fact that this allegation is even being made highlights the perceived importance of women voters.

Here's where I'll inject a personal aside: I've looked at enough election data to know that these turnout differentials rarely happen by accident. Someone, somewhere, understood the power of the women's vote and actively worked to mobilize it. The question is, how? And more importantly, what promises were made, and what will be the cost of fulfilling them?

Now, let's talk about the opposition. The Mahagathbandhan, despite Tejashwi Yadav's initial confidence ("Change is Certain," he declared), clearly underperformed. While Yadav managed to retain his seat in Raghopur, the overall picture isn't pretty. Full list of winners and losers in Bihar Election 2025: Winning candidates from BJP, JDU, RJD, LJP, Congress - livemint.com AIMIM leader Waris Pathan is already blaming RJD and Congress for dividing minority votes. We don't have enough data to quantify that claim yet, but it's a sentiment worth watching.

And then there's Prashant Kishor's Jan Suraaj Party. All exit polls predicted a poor showing, and they were right. The party failed to make a significant impact. Their spokesperson promises a "serious review" of their performance. I suspect that review will involve a lot of soul-searching and number-crunching.

Women Decided This One

The Bihar election wasn't just about caste arithmetic or political maneuvering. It was about the strategic mobilization of women voters. The NDA, particularly JD(U), seems to have cracked the code on how to appeal to this crucial demographic. Whether it was through genuine welfare programs or targeted incentives (or, as the opposition alleges, something more dubious), the result is undeniable. The numbers don't lie: women gave the NDA the edge.