Rashtriya Janata Dal gets highest vote share among parties in Bihar, while winning only four seats; 20 MPs from OBC, EBC groups

In 2019, the difference in vote share between the NDA and the Opposition was over 22 percentage points; in 2014, the gap was narrowed to nine percentage points; half of MPs are OBCs, EBCs, while six are Dalits.

RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav interacts with the media before leaving for Delhi to attend the India bloc meeting, on June 5, 2024. | Photo Credit: PTI

The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) won only four out of the 40 Lok Sabha seats from Bihar, but the party got a vote share of 22.14%, the highest among all political parties in the State. It was followed by the BJP with 20.52% and the Janata Dal (United) with 18.52%, though both these parties were able to convert their vote shares into 12 seats each. In the last Lok Sabha election in 2019, the RJD had got 15.68% of votes, while the BJP had a 23.57% vote share.

Of the 40 winning candidates in the 2024 election, half are from other backward class (OBC) and extremely backward class (EBC) communities, which make up 63% of the State’s population, according to the recent caste survey. Of the 13 OBC MPs, seven are from the Yadav caste. Six MPs are from the Dalit community, all from reserved seats. Among the 12 upper caste MPs, six are Rajputs and three are from the Bhumihar caste. Two MPs are Muslims. All mainstream political parties had fielded candidates, keeping in mind the caste calculus of various constituencies.

Narrowing the gap

Within the Opposition mahagathbandhan (grand alliance), the RJD’s vote share was more than seven percentage points higher than in the last general election when the party had failed to win any seats. With its 22% vote share this time round, it won only the four seats of Aurangabad, Jehanabad, Buxar, and Patliputra. Its alliance partner, the Congress, received 9.2% of votes, winning three seats in Kishanganj, Katihar, and Sasaram.

The three Left parties together got less than 5% of votes — 2.99% for the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist), 1.31% for the Communist Party of India, and 0.87% for the Communist Party of India (Marxist). Out of the five seats they contested, the Left parties won two seats in Karakat and Ara, both going to the CPI-ML. Other parties and Independents together garnered the remaining 13.29% votes in Bihar.

Among NDA allies, the BJP got a 20.52% vote share, followed by the JD(U) with 18.52%, and the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) with 6.43%.. Together, the NDA got a 45.52% vote share in Bihar, while the mahagathbandhan got 36.47%. In 2019, NDA’s vote share was 22.49 percentage points higher than the mahagathbandhan; this time, the gap has narrowed to nine percentage points.

For the BJP in Bihar, its best results in decades came in the 2014 Lok Sabha election, when the party had contested 30 seats — without a poll alliance with the JD(U) — and won 22 with a 29.86% vote share. In 2024, as part of the NDA, the JD(U) contested 16 seats, winning 12, the same number of seats won by its ally, the BJP.