Elections in Bihar

Currently, the state of Bihar sends 40 representatives to the Lok Sabha, elected through a first past the post system. The Indian general election, 2009 in Bihar were held for 40 seats with the state going to polls in the first four phases of the general elections. The major contenders in the state were the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), Indian National Congress and the Fourth Front. NDA consisted of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Janata Dal (United) whereas the fourth front was constituted of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Lok Jan Shakti Party (LJP) and the Samajwadi Party (SP).

Both the houses of the state legislature jointly nominate Members of Parliament to the Rajya Sabha. The Rajya Sabha or Council of States is the upper house of the Parliament of India. Membership of Rajya Sabha is limited by the Constitution to a maximum of 250 members, and current laws have provision for 245 members. Most of the members of the House are indirectly elected by state and territorial legislatures using single transferable votes, while the President of India can appoint 12 members for their contributions to art, literature, science, and social services. Members sit for staggered six-year terms, with one third of the members retiring every two years.

Bihar legislature assembly has 243 seats. For the election of its members, the state is divided into 243 Assembly Constituencies in which the candidate securing the largest number of votes is declared elected. In the Bihar Assembly Elections, 2010, the National Democratic Alliance formed the state government having secured a simple majority of 206 seats.[1] Bihar Legislative Assembly came into existence in 1937. The Assembly had a strength of 152 members. According to the provisions of the Constitution of India, the first General Elections in the state were held in 1952. The total strength of membership in the Assembly was 331, including one nominated member. Dr Sri Krishna Singh became the first Leader of the house and the Chief Minister and Dr Anurag Narayan Sinha was elected the first deputy leader of the assembly and became state's first Deputy Chief Minister. It was reduced to 318 during the second General Elections. In 1977, the total number of elected members of the Bihar Legislative Assembly was further raised from 318 to 324. With the creation of a separate State of Jharkhand, by an Act of Parliament titled the Bihar Reorganisation Act, 2000, the strength of the Bihar Legislative Assembly was reduced from 325 to 243 members. The current Nitish Kumar government is a minority, powered by the BJP and LJP to majority status

The upper house known as the Legislative Council has lesser powers than the Assembly and several of its members are nominated by the Assembly. Others are elected from various sections of the society like Graduates and Teachers. Currently the Legislative Council consists of 95 members. A new Province of Bihar and Orissa was created by the British Government on 12 December 1911. The Legislative Council with a total of 43 members belonging to different categories was formed in 1912. The first sitting of the Council was convened on 20 January 1913. In 1936, Bihar attained its separate Statehood. Under the Government of India Act, 1919, the unicameral legislature got converted into bicameral one, i.e. the Bihar Legislative Council and the Bihar Legislative Assembly. Under the Government of India Act, 1935, the Bihar Legislative Council consisted of 29 members. After the first General Elections 1952, the number of members was increased up to 72 and by 1958 the number was raised to 96. With the creation of Jharkhand, as a result of the Bihar Reorganisation Act, 2000 passed by the Parliament, the strength of the Bihar Legislative Council has been reduced from 96 to 75 members

Year	Election	Total Seat[2]	Winner	Winner's seat	Chief Minister	Deputy Chief Minister	1st Runner up	2nd Runner up
1951	1st Assembly	276	INC	239	Sri Krishna Sinha	Dr. Anugrah Narayan Sinha	Jharkhand(33)[3]	Samajwadi(23)
1957	2nd Assembly	318	INC	210	Sri Krishna Sinha Deep Narayan Singh Binodanand Jha	Dr. Anugrah Narayan Sinha	Jharkhand(32)	Praja Samajwadi(31)
1962	3rd Assembly	264	INC	185	Binodanand Jha Krishana Ballabh Sahay		Swatantra(50)	Praja Samajwadi(29)
1967	4th Assembly	318	INC	128	Mahamaya Prasad Sinha,JKD Satish Prasad Singh,INC B. P. Mandal,INC Bhola Paswan Shashtri,INC(O)		Samyukta Samajwadi party (68)	Jankranti Dal/Jan Sangh (26/26)
1969	5th Assembly	318	none	None	Harihar Singh,INC Bhola Paswan Shashtri,INC(O) President's rule Daroga Prasad Rai,INC Karpuri Thakur,Socialist Party Bhola Paswan Shashtri,		INC	Samyukta Samajwadi party (53)	Jan sangh(34)
1972	6th Assembly	318	INC	167	Kedar Pandey Abdul Gafoor Jagannath Mishra		Communist Party(35)	Samajwadi Party(34)
1977	7th Assembly	318	Janata Party	214	Karpuri Thakur Ram Sunder Das		Congress (57)	CPI (21)/Independents (25)
1980	8th Assembly	324	INC	169	Jagannath Mishra Chandrashekhar Singh		Janta(S) Charan group (42)	CPI (23)
1985	9th Assembly	324	INC	196	Bindeshwari Dubey Bhagwat Jha Azad Satyendra Narayan Singh Jagannath Mishra		Lok Dal (46)	IND (29)
1990	10th Assembly	324	Janata Dal	122	Laloo Prasad Yadav		INC (71)	BJP (39)
1995	11th Assembly	324	Janata Dal	167	Laloo Prasad Yadav Rabri Devi		BJP (41)	INC (29)
2000	12th Assembly	243 (Excludes Jharkhand)	RJD	103	Rabri Devi		BJP (39)	SAP (28)
2005	13th Assembly	243	None	None	President's rule		NDA (92) JD(U) (55) BJP (37)	RJD (75) with INC (10)
2005	14th Assembly	243	NDA JD(U) (88) BJP (55)	143	Nitish Kumar	Sushil Kumar Modi	RJD (54) INC (10)	LJP (10)
2010	15th Assembly	243	NDA JD(U) (115) BJP (91)	206	Nitish Kumar Jitan Ram Manjhi	Sushil Kumar Modi	RJD (22) LJP(3)	INC (4)
2015	16th Assembly	243	JD(U) (71) BJP (53) INC (2)	126	Nitish Kumar	Sushil Kumar Modi	UPA RJD (80) INC(27)

Text-Based :

• 1995 Total: 324 (including Jharkhand). Janata Dal: 167, BJP: 41, INC: 29. CMs (Lalu Prasad Yadav, Rabri Devi)
• 2000 Total: 243 (excluding Jharkhand). RJD: 103, BJP+Samata: 39+28 (CM: Nitish Kumar (for 7 days in March 2000), then Rabri Devi for 5 years)
• 2005-Feb: Total: 243. JD(U)+BJP: 55+37=92, RJD: 75, INC: 10 (Hung assembly dissolved)
• 2005-Oct. JD(U)+BJP: 88+55=143, RJD: 54, INC: 10 (CM: Nitish Kumar)
• 2010: JD(U)+BJP: 115+91=206, RJD: 22, INC: 4 (CM(s): Nitish Kumar, Jitan Ram Manjhi, Nitish Kumar again)
• 2015: Total : 243. JD-U (71) + BJP (53) + LJP (2) = Total 126; RJD (80) + Cong (27) + RLSP (2) = Total 109 (CM: Nitish Kumar)

Total Seats- 54

Total Seats- 40

• Alliance-wise results. Alliances have kept changing in Bihar.
• 2004 : Total - 40. Lalu's RJD + Congress = 22+3 = 25, BJP + Nitish JD = 5+6 = 11, Paswan's Party : 4.
• 2009 : --- Nitish JDU + BJP = 20+12 = 32, Lalu RJD - 4, Congress - 2.
• 2014 : --- (BJP 22 + Paswan 6 + RLSP 3) = 31, Lalu RJD + congress = 4+2, Nitish JDU - 2.
• 2019 : --- (bjp 17 + Nitish 16 + Paswan 6) = 39, Congress - 1, Lalu Janata Dal - zero.

The Election Commission's Model Code of Conduct enters into force as soon as the notification for polls is issued. This places restrictions on the campaigning by political parties as well as prohibits certain government actions that would unduly influence the election.

The electoral process is the same as in the rest of India with Electronic Voting Machines being used for all Lok Sabha and State Assembly elections.

After the election day, the EVMs are stood stored in a strong room under heavy security. After the different phases of the elections are complete, a day is set to count the votes. The votes are tallied and typically, the verdict is known within hours. The candidate who has mustered the most votes is declared the winner of the constituency.

The party or coalition that has won the most seats is invited by the Governor to form the new government. The coalition or party must prove its majority in the floor of the house (Legislative Assembly) in a vote of confidence by obtaining a simple majority (minimum 50%) of the votes in the House.