Bihar Phase 2 Polls: NDA And Grand Alliance Brace For Neck-And-Neck Battle Across 122 Seats
The NDA had won 66 seats while the Grand Alliance was victorious on 49 of these seats last time.
Published : November 10, 2025 at 5:16 PM IST
Patna: A close fight is expected between the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and Mahagathbandhan (Grand Alliance) candidates on the 122 assembly seats that go to poll in the second phase of Bihar elections on Tuesday.
In the last assembly election on these seats held in 2020, the NDA had won 66 seats while the Grand Alliance was victorious on 49. Meanwhile, the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) won five, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and an independent had won one each.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) holds the highest number of 42 MLAs, on these 122 seats while the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) has 33, Janata Dal United 20, Congress 11, Communist Party of India (Marxist Leninist) five and Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) has four sitting MLAs.
These 122 constituencies are spread across 20 districts of which East Champaran has the highest number of 12 seats, followed by Gayaji and Madhubani with 10 each. Among the other districts West Champaran has nine seats, Sitamarhi eight, Rohtas, Bhagalpur, Purnia, and Katihar each have seven seats, Aurangabad and Araria have six seats each, Nawada, Banka and Supaul have five seats each, Kaimur, Jamui, and Kishanganj have four seats each and Jehanabad has three seats. Voting will also take place on two seats in Arwal and one in Sheohar.
Battle on these 122 seats:
There are a total of 1,302 candidates in fray in the second phase of which RJD has fielded the highest number of 71 candidates followed by the BJP with 53, JDU 44, Congress 37, Lok Jan Shakti Party (LJP) (R) 15, Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP) eight, CPI (ML) and HAM six each, Rashtriya Lok Morcha (RLM) and Communist Party of India (CPI) four each while Communist Party of India (Marxist) has fielded one candidate.
Several ministers of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s cabinet are contesting in the second phase of the elections. These include Bijendra Yadav from Supaul, Sumit Kumar Singh from Chakai, Jayant Raj from Amarpur, Nitish Mishra from Jhanjharpur, Renu Devi from Bettiah, Neeraj Kumar Singh Bablu from Chhatapur, Leshi Singh from Dhamdaha, Krishnanandan Paswan from Harsiddhi and Jama Khan from Chainpur.
The bigwigs of the Grand Alliance in fray include senior RJD leader and former Speaker Uday Narayan Choudhary, State Congress President Rajesh Ram, Congress Legislature Party leader Shakeel Ahmed Khan and CPI(ML) leader Mehboob Alam.
Observers say that 90 seats falling in Tirhut, Seemanchal and Magadh regions are crucial in the second phase and will determine who will form the government in Bihar. The NDA holds 40 seats in Tirhut, while the Grand Alliance holds 26 seats in Magadh. Both of them face a tough fight in Seemanchal.
Tirhut played a crucial role in bringing the NDA to power in the 2020 elections, where it won 31 of the 40 seats in East Champaran, West Champaran, Sitamarhi, Sheohar and Madhubani districts. The Grand Alliance won only nine seats in Tirhut.
The Grand Alliance had come up with an impressive performance in Magadha’s districts of Gaya, Aurangabad, Jehanabad, Nawada and Arwal.
Meanwhile, Jitan Ram Manjhi's HAM captured the Imamganj, Tikari, and Barachatti seats in Gaya district in 2020. In 2025, HAM candidates face tough competition in all the three seats. The BJP is contesting in Gaya city, the JDU in Belaganj, the Congress in Wazirganj and the LJP (R) in Sherghati. The prestige of the Congress state president is at stake in Aurangabad's Kutumba.
Observers say that the 24 seats in Seemanchal could play a crucial role in government formation. In 2020, the BJP won eight of these seats, followed by the JDU and the Congress winning five each while the RJD and the CPI (ML) each won one seat. The AIMIM had won five seats in this region.
The Champaran belt comprises 21 assembly seats, while the two districts of Madhubani and Supaul in Mithila belt comprise 15 seats. The NDA had performed strongly in this region in 2020.
This time the NDA's hopes rest on the traditional support base of the BJP and the JDU. The Grand Alliance is trying to sharpen the fight by raising issues like employment and local development which has posed a challenge to the ruling NDA alliance.
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