Bihar Election 2025 results begin: Nitish Kumar’s political comeback or ouster? Explore his legacy, alliances, and strategic moves.

Bihar Election 2025 : All eyes are on Nitish Kumar, the state’s longest-serving chief minister and one of India’s most lasting political personalities, as the results of the 2025 assembly election in Bihar begin to be announced. Even after more than 20 years in power, the Janata Dal (United) supremo, who is renowned for his strategic brilliance and capacity to negotiate changing political environments, continues to play a significant role in Bihar politics.

Live results of the Bihar election 2025 : Nitish comeback or overthrow?

Since taking office as chief minister in 2000, Nitish Kumar has guided the state through multiple coalition governments, frequently alternating between the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

He has been called a political “flip-flopper” for these numerous realignments, but they also demonstrate his unparalleled capacity to endure and stay relevant in Bihar’s volatile political landscape.
The political career of Nitish Kumar

Born in Bakhtiyarpur in 1951, Nitish Kumar came out of the Jayaprakash Narayan (JP) Movement of the 1970s, which produced Lalu Prasad Yadav and many other socialist leaders of his time.

He began his electoral career in the early 1980s, winning Harnaut’s first assembly election in 1985. He went on to represent Barh and Nalanda in Parliament.

Kumar gained a reputation as a pro-development politician who worked to improve administration in a state that had long been linked to “jungle raj” while serving as chief minister.

He was praised for changing the perception of Bihar in the 2000s with his efforts in road building, rural electrification, education, women’s empowerment, and law and order.

Nitish Kumar, who is currently in his mid-seventies, still controls the political discourse in the state. Every decision he makes changes the electoral environment in Bihar, whether he is heading the NDA or siding with the opposition.

Also read : Bihar Exit Poll 2025: NDA Set for Clear Win, Mahagathbandhan Trails Behind

In an uncommon decision for a sitting chief minister, he has opted to serve in the Bihar Legislative Council (MLC) since 2006 rather than run for assembly directly.

“Mr. Flip-Flop”

Frequent but strategic partnerships and breakups characterize Nitish Kumar’s political career. After Narendra Modi became the party’s national face, he broke from the BJP in 2013. He later formed the Mahagathbandhan with the Congress and Lalu Prasad Yadav’s RJD for the 2015 elections.

Citing corruption in the RJD, he returned to the NDA two years later in 2017 and took the chief ministerial oath once more.

The Nitish-led NDA secured a slim majority in Bihar’s 243-seat assembly in 2020. The number of seats for JD(U) fell sharply to 43, while the BJP secured 74 seats. His position within the alliance started to change as a result of that imbalance. With Tejashwi Yadav as his deputy, Nitish Kumar again broke away from the BJP-led NDA in August 2022, resigned as chief minister, and formed a new coalition with the RJD, Congress, and Left parties (the so-called Grand Alliance/Mahagathbandhan).

He once more made a U-turn, leaving the opposition’s INDIA group and joining the NDA just before the Lok Sabha elections in January 2024. This was his ninth time taking the CM oath.

2025 assembly election in Bihar

Both the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Janata Dal (United) fielded candidates for 101 seats in the 2025 Bihar assembly election, marking a balance not seen since 2005. Jitan Ram Manjhi’s Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular), Upendra Kushwaha’s Rashtriya Lok Morcha (RLM), and Chirag Paswan’s LJP (RV) are also part of the coalition.