New Delhi : The BJP emerged victorious on 89 of the 101 seats it contested to become the single largest party in Bihar’s 243-member Assembly. The party’s strike rate in the Bihar Assembly election was an impressive 88%. It faltered on a dozen seats. In four of these 12 seats, the margin of defeat for the BJP was less than a thousand votes. Ten seats had a margin of less than 10,000 votes. Despite a wave, who are the dozen who didn’t manage to cross the finish line, and by what distance did they fall short?
Three of the most nail-biting contests saw the BJP lose by just 30 votes in Ramgarh to the BSP, 178 votes in Dhaka to the RJD, and 221 votes in Seemanchal’s Forbesganj to the Congress.
Of these 12 BJP losses, four came from Seemanchal, translating to gains for the Congress and the AIMIM in this minority-heavy belt. Two defeats for the BJP came from the Mithila-Koshi region, where the RJD and smaller parties consolidated their base. The remaining six defeats were scattered, among seats in Saran, Champaran, Magadh, and Tirhut divisions.
Here is a break-down of the 12 BJP losses, and what regional story they narrate.
4 OF 12 BJP DEFEATS CAME FROM BIHAR’S SEEMANCHAL
In the Seemanchal region, where the Asaduddin Owaisi-led AIMIM won five seats, the BJP candidates faced defeats in four seats. In Araria district’s Forbesganj, the BJP’s Vidya Sagar Keshri lost to the Congress’ Manoj Bishwas by just 221 votes.
In the Kishanganj seat, the Congress’ Qamrul Hoda defeated the BJP’s Sweety Kumari by 12,794 votes.
In Purnea district’s Baisi, which the RJD won in 2020, the AIMIM emerged victorious by 27,251 votes in the 2025 Bihar Vidhan Sabha polls.
At Kishanganj’s Kochadhaman, BJP candidate Bina Devi was trounced by the AIMIM’s Sarwar Alam by 37,002 votes. Bina Devi finished in third place, following the AIMIM and the RJD. This is the biggest vote margin by which a BJP candidate lost in the 2025 Bihar polls.
IN MITHILA-KOSHI, BJP LOST 2 SEATS
To the west, in the Mithila-Koshi belt, the BJP faced two defeats, including in Saharsa, where the BJP had won four out of the last five Assembly pols.
At Bisfi, the RJD’s Asif Ahmed defeated the BJP’s former MLA Haribhushan Thakur by a margin of 8,107 votes.
In Saharsa, the IIP, (a Mahagathbandhan ally) won by 2,038 votes, showcasing a transfer of RJD votes to the smaller ally.
The remaining six BJP defeats in the 2025 Bihar Assembly polls came from other regions across the state, with one seat going to the Mayawati-led BSP.
In Sehohar district’s Dhaka, the RJD’s Faisal Rahman defeated the BJP’s Pawan Kumar by a narrow margin of 178 votes.
In the Ramgarh in Kaimur district, which borders Uttar Pradesh, the BSP’s Ashok Kumar Singh won by just 30 votes. Here, the BJP’s incumbent MLA Ashok Kumar Singh faced defeat after votes were divided among the saffron party, the RJD and the Prahant Kishor-led Jan Suraaj.
At Raghopur, where RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav was in the fray, the BJP’s Satish Kumar faced a defeat by a margin of 14,532 votes in the high-profile seat. This is a seat where RJD bigwigs, Lalu Prasad, Rabri Devi and Tejashwi, have won repeatedly.
In Champaran’s Chanpatia, where Jan Suraaj’s Manish Kashyap (a YouTuber) was contesting, the Congress defeated the BJP’s Umakant Singh by just 602 votes. With the votes split among Kashyap and Congress’ Abhishek Ranjan, the BJP fell short in the close contest.
In Magadh’s Goh seat, the RJD’s Amrendra Kumar, defeated the BJP’s Ranvijay Kumar by a margin of 4,041 votes.
To the east, in Warsaliganj, the BJP’s Aruna Devi defeated the RJD’s Anita by 7,543 votes.
These were the 12 seats where even the mighty BJP couldn’t muscle through. In the 2025 Bihar polls, the BJP contested 101 seats as part of the NDA, and won 89, clocking an impressive 88% strike rate.
Not just the BJP, but the NDA allies achieved remarkable strike rates in the 2025 Bihar Assembly elections. The Nitish Kumar-led JD(U) won 85 out of 101 at 84%, while the Chirag Paswan-led LJP(RV) clinched 19 out of 23 at 83%. The HAM(S), led by former Bihar CM Jitan Ram Manjhi, won five out of six seats at 83%. These parties collectively powered the coalition to a landslide.
Though the BJP emerged as the single largest party, pipping the RJD, the saffron juggernaut stumbled on 12 seats. The defeats came mostly in RJD strongholds and close-fought pockets with heavy Yadav or Muslim influence, despite a statewide landslide of 202 seats for the NDA.
