20% More Voted In Bihar This Time, NDA Allies Showed Good Vote Transfer: News18 Data Dive

Last Updated:November 15, 2025, 16:09 IST

Bihar poll results: As per official data, while 4.21 crore voters had cast their votes in 2020, slightly over 5 crore voters cast their vote this time

All five NDA parties have a high strike rate. (PTI File)

While some have started misreading election data to claim ‘vote chori’ after the phenomenal win of the Democratic Alliance (NDA) in the Bihar elections, CNN-NEWS18 did a reality check of the data to get the true poll picture.

First and foremost, the Congress claims ‘Vote Chori’ and says lakhs of people were wrongly removed from the electoral rolls through the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise. But the fact is that more people cast their votes in Bihar this time than the last elections.

As per official data, while 4.21 crore voters had cast their votes in 2020, slightly over 5 crore voters cast their vote this time. The exact numbers are 4,21,42,828 votes cast in 2020, compared to 5,00,29,879 votes cast this time. That means nearly 20% more voters turning up in 2025.

The second claim of some is questioning how the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Janata Dal United (JDU) could increase their seats from 74 and 43, respectively, in 2020, to 89 and 85 now. The answer again lies in the higher votes polled by both parties and vote-transfer being ensured in seats an ally was contesting. Sample this: the BJP polled around 82 lakh votes in 2020, getting 74 seats. This time the BJP contested on nine seats less (101) but got more votes – about one crore to be precise. This has boosted the BJP tally from 74 seats to 89 this time.

The biggest jump was in the votes of the JDU. Nitish Kumar’s party had got 64.85 lakh votes in the last elections, finishing with 43 seats. But the JDU this time fought on 14 seats less (101) than the last time but got 96.67 lakh votes. This shows people reposed their faith in Nitish. This has significantly boosted the JDU tally from 43 seats to 85 seats now. The BJP and JDU tally also reflects in the fact that effective vote-transfer happened between the allies.

The third claim by some is that RJD is the single-largest party by votes but has ended up with just 25 seats. The fact remains that the RJD has polled the maximum number of votes — 1.15 crore — but that is also because it contested far more seats (143) than any other party. While the RJD got 97.38 lakh votes the last time, and hence too has boosted its vote tally, the vote transfer did not happen as well from its allies. That explains why the Congress party and other allies like Left and the VIP have fared badly.

The chemistry in the Mahagathbandan when it came to vote transfer was sorely lacking while it was a big hit in the NDA. As a result, all five NDA parties have a high strike rate, the opposition parties all have a poor strike rate in terms of seats.

The Indian Congress, through its Facebook post, has questioned why Chief Election Commissioner Shri Gyanesh Kumar mentioned the total number of electors in Bihar as 7.42 crore in his press note on October 6, while the Election Commission of India’s press release issued after polling shows the figure as 7.45 crore. But ECI has now clarified how an additional 3 lakh electors were added.

News elections 20% More Voted In Bihar This Time, NDA Allies Showed Good Vote Transfer: News18 Data Dive

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