Bihar To Vote On November 6 And 11, Results On November 14

The Bihar election will be held over two phases - on November 6 and November 11 - the Election Commission said Monday afternoon. Counting will take place on November 14.

Of the state's 243 seats, 121 will vote in the first phase and the rest in the second.

The dates line up with what sources told NDTV two weeks ago - that voting will take place after Chhath and Diwali, which will take place from October 18 to October 28 this year.

Political parties, sources had said, pushed for this to allow the maximum number of people to cast their votes. Sources had also said voting will take place over two phases.

2025 Bihar election key players

The election will be a fight between the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and Janata Dal United-led alliance and the Mahagathbandhan led by the Congress and Rashtriya Janata Dal.

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Prashant Kishor - who orchestrated superb wins for Nitish Kumar and his Bengal counterpart Mamata Banerjee, whose state votes next year, as a poll strategist - will make his electoral debut this time with his own party, the Jan Suraaj that will contest all 243 seats in the state.

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Campaigning and voting will take place in the shadow of a furious political and legal controversy - the Election Commission's 'special intensive revision' of the state's voter list.

The 'special intensive revision' background

On that topic the EC accused critics (no one was named) of running an 'online campaign against the exercise', and said verified voters had already been issued new cards.

New protocols have been put in place, the poll panel also said, to issue new voter cards within 15 days of receipt of an application, to ensure that every eligible voter can cast their ballot.

The opposition - already attacking the EC and ruling BJP over 'voter fraud' across elections last year - had cried foul over the revision, or SIR, alleging the timing was meant to disenfranchise lakhs of men and women from marginalised groups who might vote for them.

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The EC, however, maintained the revision was meant to ensure only eligible individuals, i.e., Indian citizens, can vote, and pointed to the discovery of Nepali and Bangladeshi nationals on Bihar's voter lists. The Bihar SIR reduced registered voters in Bihar to less than 7.24 crore.

It was 7.9 crore before the exercise.

The SIR saw fierce arguments and challenges in the Supreme Court, culminating in the court this week saying the process could be scrapped, at any time, if illegality is established.

What happened in 2020?

The 2020 election saw a narrow win for the BJP-led alliance, which won 125 seats (BJP 74, JDU 43, others eight) against 110 (RJD 75, Congress 19, others 16) by the Mahagathbandhan.

Nitish Kumar began his seventh term as a BJP ally but, halfway through it, acted on his 'paltu' Kumar nickname and walked out, allying with the Mahagathbandhan.

However, two years into that switch (and having helped found the INDIA bloc to rally parties not aligned with the BJP, Nitish Kumar switched again, returning to the saffron party's side.

Bihar 2025 and beyond

The 2025 Bihar election will kickstart a run of high-profile Assembly polls over the next two years - with Assam, Bengal, and Tamil Nadu in 2026, and Punjab and Uttar Pradesh, among others, in 2027, signalling the long build-up to the 2029 Lok Sabha election.

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

Two of these will be held in Jammu and Kashmir, including Budgam - won and vacated by Chief Minister Omar Abdullah after he also won the Ganderbal seat in last year's election - and one each in Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Telangana, Punjab, Mizoram, and Odisha.

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