Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Tejashwi Yadav - the opposition's chief ministerial candidate - declared himself confident of victory Friday morning as counting for the Bihar election began. "We are going to win. Thanks to everyone. A change is about to come. We are forming the government," he said.
Yadav, accompanied by father and party founder Lalu Prasad Yadav and his sister, Lok Sabha MP Misa Bharti, stepped out of his Patna home minutes before counting started. Tejashwi Yadav is contesting from the family stronghold of Raghopur and faces the BJP's Satish Kumar as his possible main rival.
READ | Tejashwi Yadav Ahead In Very Early Leads In Family Bastion Raghopur
The eastern state voted in a two-phase election on November 6 and 11.
The RJD is allied with the Congress and a Left front, as well as the Vikassheel Insaan Party of Mukesh Sahani, who was named the Mahagathbandhan's Deputy Chief Minister face.
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It is up against the ruling alliance led by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal United and the Bharatiya Janata Party, which includes union minister Chirag Paswan's Lok Janshakti Party.
#WATCH | Patna: Bihar Assembly Election Results | Mahagathbandhan's CM face and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav says, "We are going to win. Thanks to everyone. A change is about to come. We are forming the government" pic.twitter.com/p6pVag0e96
— ANI (@ANI) November 14, 2025
Poll strategist Prashant Kishor's Jan Suraaj makes its electoral debut.
The majority mark in the 243-seat House is 122.
The RJD is not expected to win this election.
READ | Exit Polls Give NDA Clear Majority In Bihar, 1 Predicts Close Contes
Thirteen exit polls studied by NDTV have all handed the BJP-JDU a comfortable victory, prompting euphoric 'Tiger Zinda Hain' posters across Patna in praise of Nitish Kumar.
The combined numbers predicted the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance will retain power and that the BJP will emerge as the single-largest party, displacing the RJD from 2020.
The NDA, the number said, will get 147 and the opposition 90 seats.
The Jan Suraaj is expected to flop.
However, Yadav and the opposition are insistent that they will surprise exit pollsters with a win, although the RJD leader also warned of a BJP plan to manipulate the results.
READ | 'Plans To Slow Counting': Tejashwi Yadav's Big Claim Ahead Of Results
"We have received information that a strategy has been developed to slow down the entire counting process tomorrow, especially in seats where the margins are low," he said.
"Our appeal to all officials, and especially the Election Commission, is that -- count the votes impartially," he added, echoing warnings flagged by Congress MP Rahul Gandhi over the past few weeks, that the top poll body and the BJP are in cahoots to manipulate election results.
Both the EC and BJP have flatly denied the allegations.
Tejashwi Yadav's concern follows a narrow defeat in 2020; the Mahagathbandhan finished 12 seats short of majority, hampered by the loss of some seats by less than 1,000 votes.
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