It is the compulsion of every party to form alliance in Bihar politics. There are many big reasons behind this. If we look at the elections of the last 30 years, a coalition government was formed in every election except the 1995 election. In 1995, Lalu Prasad Yadav’s wave single-handedly formed the government by winning 167 seats, which was the last majority for a single party.
So let us understand in ABP Explainer why forming a coalition is necessary in Bihar politics, how the coalition factor has worked in the last 30 years and why the party alone cannot form the government…
Question 1- Why is alliance a compulsion for every party in Bihar?
answer: In the politics of Bihar, due to division of votes, caste equation and multi-party system, no single party is able to get a complete majority. Only once in 1995, Rashtriya Janata Dal i.e. RJD (then Janata Dal) under the leadership of Lalu Prasad Yadav got majority by winning 167 seats. Before and after this, every government was formed by a coalition. There are 3 big reasons for this…
- Division of votes: No party is able to get more than 40% vote share. 10-20% votes go to Left, AIMIM and Paswan’s LJP or independent candidates.
- Caste equation: Bihar is divided into vote banks like Yadav (14%), Muslim (17%), Kushwaha-Koeri (8%), Upper Caste (15%) and Dalit (16%). No party can bring everyone together.
- Multi-Party System: Many parties like RJD, JDU, BJP, Congress, CPI-ML are active. Due to division of votes, alliance becomes necessary. The alliance formed the government in every election from 1990 to 2020, except in 1995. In 2020, there was a contest between NDA (37% votes) and Grand Alliance (37% votes), but the seats were won by the alliance only.
Question 2- How was the politics of Bihar in 1990 and what was the role of the alliance?
answer- There were 324 seats in Bihar in the 1990 and 1995 assembly elections. In 2000, Jharkhand was separated from Bihar and became a new state. After this, 243 seats were left in Bihar.
When Bihar Assembly elections were held in March 1990, Lalu Prasad Yadav’s Janata Dal and Left Front’s CPI, CPM were the main parties. Janata Dal got 122 seats with 28.1% vote percentage, Congress got 71 seats (22.4% vote percentage), BJP got 39 seats (11.7% vote percentage), CPI got 23 seats (6.8% vote percentage) and CPM got 6 seats.
Lalu Prasad Yadav broke the 30-year dominance of Congress by creating the Muslim-Yadav equation. Janata Dal won 122 seats, but 163 seats were required for complete majority. For this reason took the support of Left Front (CPI, CPM). Lalu became Chief Minister on 10 March 1990. BJP and Congress alone were weak. The distribution of vote share of 28% to Janata Dal shows that victory alone was difficult. The coalition formed the government.
Question 3- Then how did Lalu form the government in 1995 without any alliance?
answer- Bihar Assembly elections were held in March-April 1995, in which Janata Dal and outer Left had the main support. For the first time, Janata Dal had won 167 seats with 36.8% vote share. While BJP got 41 seats with 14.5% vote share, Congress got 29 seats with 11.9% vote share and CPI got 26 seats with 7.2% vote share.
Lalu’s wave of social justice and Muslim-Yadav equation was at its peak. Janata Dal had got absolute majority by winning 167 seats, which is the only majority in Bihar till date. Lalu again took over as Chief Minister on 4 April 1995. But the vote share was only 36.8%, i.e. 63% votes were divided. Then in 1997, Janata Dal broke and RJD was formed. From 2000 onwards, alliance became necessary again as the vote share became more divided.
Despite a single majority in 1995, the need for an alliance was later confirmed due to vote division and party split.
Question 4- What was the role of the alliance in the 2000 elections?
answer- Bihar Assembly elections were held in February 2000. The main parties were NDA (BJP + Samata Party), RJD + Congress. RJD won 124 seats with 28.3% vote share. But this figure was less than the majority of 163, so the Congress formed an alliance with 23 seats and formed the government. Rabri Devi became the Chief Minister of Bihar on 25 February.
After this, in November 2000, Jharkhand separated from Bihar and became a new state with 81 assembly seats. 243 seats were left in Bihar. The RJD alliance maintained the majority, but vote division made the alliance helpless.
Question 5- How did alliance become necessary in Bihar elections in 2005, 2010, 2015 and 2020?
answer- Assembly elections were held twice in Bihar in 2005. In February and October-November. No party got absolute majority in February. RJD became the largest party, but remained 47 seats short of the magic figure of 122. Ram Vilas Paswan’s LJP cut off votes. Due to the hung assembly, President’s rule came into force on 7 March 2005.
After this, Nitish Kumar’s JDU and BJP strengthened the alliance in the October-November elections. JDU got 88 seats with 20.5% vote share and BJP got 55 seats with 15.7% vote share. Whereas RJD could get only 54 seats despite having 23.5% vote share.
How was the strength of the alliance seen in 2010?
Nitish’s ‘good governance’ wave prevailed in this assembly elections. JDU won 115 seats, but BJP did not have majority without 91 seats. NDA made a record by winning 206 seats. The alliance of 22 seats of RJD and 3 seats of LJP remained weak. Nitish again became the Chief Minister on 26 November 2010.
How did the Grand Alliance win in 2015?
Lalu Prasad Yadav and Nitish Kumar formed a historic alliance, which included RJD, JDU and Congress. Whereas NDA had BJP, LJP, HAM and RLSP in its alliance. The Grand Alliance won 178 seats with 41.9% vote share and formed the government. Nitish Kumar became the Chief Minister on 20 November 2015.
How was the alliance contest in 2020?
The previous grand alliance broke and Nitish joined hands with BJP. JDU, HAM and VIP were included in NDA, while RJD, Congress and Left parties were included in the grand alliance. NDA won 125 seats with 37.2% vote share. At the same time, the Grand Alliance got 110 seats. On 16 November 2020, Nitish Kumar once again became the Chief Minister.
Question 6- What is the pattern behind the compulsion of alliance?
answer- There are 3 patterns behind the alliance…
- Vote distribution: From 1990-2020, no party could cross 40% vote share. In 2020, NDA and the Grand Alliance got 37.2% votes, the remaining 25% went to small parties and independent candidates.
- Caste Mathematics: RJD (Yadav + Muslim), JDU (Kushwaha-Koeri), BJP (upper caste) and Left (EBC + Dalit) have vote bank. No party alone can cover all castes.
- Historical Lesson: Except in 1995, every government was formed by a coalition. The Hung Assembly of 2005 showed that if there is no alliance, there is anarchy. Nitish changed alliance 4 times (1996-2005: Samta+BJP, 2005-13: JDU+BJP, 2015: RJD+Congress, 2017: JDU+BJP, 2022: RJD+Congress and 2024: BJP-led NDA).
Now this alliance factor remains in the 2025 assembly elections also. JDU and BJP are contesting the elections together in NDA, while RJD and Congress are in the fray in the Grand Alliance.