Bihar Assembly Election 2025: Two-Phase Voting on November 6 and 11, Results on November 14

New Delhi:

The Bihar election will be conducted in two phases - November 6 and November 11 - as announced by the Election Commission on Monday afternoon. Vote counting is scheduled for November 14.

Of the state's 243 legislative seats, 121 will participate in the first phase of voting and the remaining in the second phase.

The election schedule aligns with what sources previously informed NDTV - that voting would occur after the Chhath and Diwali festivals, which take place from October 18 to October 28 this year.

Political parties, according to sources, advocated for this timing to maximize voter participation. Sources had also indicated that voting would be conducted over two phases.

The election represents a contest between the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and Janata Dal United-led alliance against the Mahagathbandhan coalition led by the Congress and Rashtriya Janata Dal.

NDTV Special | Defender, Challenger, Disruptor: For Bihar Poll, Focus On 3 Leaders

Prashant Kishor - who previously engineered successful campaigns for Nitish Kumar and Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee as a political strategist - will make his electoral debut with his own party, Jan Suraaj, which intends to contest all 243 seats in Bihar.

NDTV Explains | Why The BJP Has A Chirag Paswan-Shaped Problem In Bihar

Campaigning and voting will occur amid a significant political and legal controversy regarding the Election Commission's 'special intensive revision' of Bihar's voter list.

On this matter, the EC accused unnamed critics of conducting an 'online campaign against the exercise,' while affirming that verified voters had already received new identification cards.

The Election Commission stated that new protocols have been implemented to issue voter cards within 15 days of application receipt, ensuring all eligible voters can participate in the electoral process.

Opposition parties have criticized the EC and ruling BJP regarding the revision (SIR), alleging its timing was designed to disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of marginalized voters who might support opposition candidates.

READ | Aadhaar Valid As 12th Document For Bihar SIR: Supreme Court

The EC maintained that the revision aimed to ensure only eligible Indian citizens could vote, citing the discovery of Nepali and Bangladeshi nationals on Bihar's voter rolls. The Bihar SIR reduced the state's registered voters to less than 7.24 crore from the previous 7.9 crore.

The SIR process faced intense arguments and legal challenges in the Supreme Court, with the court recently ruling that the process could be invalidated if illegality is established.

The 2020 election resulted in a narrow victory for the BJP-led alliance, which secured 125 seats (BJP 74, JDU 43, others 8) against the Mahagathbandhan's 110 seats (RJD 75, Congress 19, others 16).

Nitish Kumar began his seventh term as Chief Minister in alliance with the BJP but, midway through his term, fulfilled his 'paltu' (turncoat) Kumar reputation by departing to join the Mahagathbandhan.

However, after two years with that alliance (during which he helped establish the INDIA bloc to unite non-BJP parties), Nitish Kumar switched allegiances again, returning to partnership with the BJP.

The 2025 Bihar election initiates a series of significant Assembly elections over the next two years - including Assam, Bengal, and Tamil Nadu in 2026, and Punjab and Uttar Pradesh, among others, in 2027 - marking the extended buildup to the 2029 Lok Sabha election.

Additionally, the EC announced dates for eight Assembly bye-elections.

Two of these bye-elections will be held in Jammu and Kashmir, including Budgam - previously won and vacated by Chief Minister Omar Abdullah after his victory in the Ganderbal constituency - and one each in Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Telangana, Punjab, Mizoram, and Odisha.

NDTV is now available on WhatsApp channels. Click on the link to get all the latest updates from NDTV on your chat.