Jan Suraaj Party Fails Electoral Debut as BJP-JDU Alliance Sweeps Bihar Election 2025

New Delhi:

The exit polls accurately predicted the outcome.

According to projections, poll strategist Prashant Kishor's Jan Suraaj party would fail in its electoral debut, and indeed the new party appears headed toward zero wins despite contesting 238 seats. The organization initially showed promise with early leads in four constituencies before losing momentum in the 2025 Bihar election.

The ruling coalition - comprised of the Bharatiya Janata Party, Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal United, and smaller partners including Chirag Paswan's Lok Janshakti Party - is advancing toward a substantial victory; by 11:30 am, the alliance was leading in 190 seats, confirming unanimous predictions of a commanding win.

In fact, at 9:16 am, just over an hour into the vote counting process, the BJP-JDU alliance surpassed the crucial majority threshold of 122 seats and, by 9:50 am, had exceeded the 150-seat mark, suggesting the possibility of an overwhelming victory.

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Exit polls had forecasted poor performance for Kishor's Jan Suraaj; NDTV's poll of exit polls suggested the party would secure only one seat. However, these polls also indicated it might significantly influence the Bihar election outcome, particularly by drawing critical vote share from the opposition Mahagathbandhan alliance.

One exit poll, Peoples Pulse, predicted that Jan Suraaj could capture nearly 10 percent of votes - exceeding the Congress party's share - which would represent an impressive achievement for a party making its electoral debut.

READ | Prashant Kishor Party's Vote Share To Beat Congress': Exit Poll

However, even this prospect seems unlikely.

Information from the Election Commission's website indicated that Jan Suraaj received fewer votes than both the NOTA option ("none of the above") and even the Nationalist Congress Party from Maharashtra.

Cautionary note: Exit polls frequently prove inaccurate.

The Jan Suraaj was considered the 'X factor' in this election because Prashant Kishor, as a poll strategist, possesses a remarkable record of engineering significant electoral victories, having accomplished this at least three times.

His past successes include working for Nitish Kumar in the 2015 Bihar election, for Jagan Mohan Reddy and the YSR Congress Party in Andhra Pradesh in 2019, and for Mamata Banerjee and her Trinamool Congress in 2021.

Exit polls, however, disagreed with predictions of his new party's success. Many allocated zero seats to Kishor's party, and Kishor himself appeared unsurprised, stating before counting began that his party would either perform exceptionally well or fail completely.

The eastern state conducted voting in a two-phase election on November 6 and 11.