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Rae Bareli, Nov 19 (IANS) A poster war has broken out in the parliamentary constituency of Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi after a Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) leader on Wednesday put up posters thanking the Congress MP for the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) victory in Bihar.
The posters sarcastically praised the opposition leader, saying: “Heartfelt thanks to Rahul Gandhi for his invaluable contribution to the formation of the NDA government in Bihar. His incredible strategy, prudence and miraculous foresight made this possible. We deserve such inspiring support every day.”
NDA had recently won a landslide victory in the Bihar Assembly elections by capturing more than 200 out of 243 seats. Within the alliance, the BJP won 89 seats and the Janata Dal (United) won 85 seats. An interactive feature shows detailed results of the 2025 Bihar elections, with options to view the data through maps and charts. The results of 2015 and 2020 assembly elections have also been included for comparison.
The total vote share of NDA was 46.7 percent, while the vote share of the opposition alliance was 37.5 percent.
Congress has faced a big defeat in the Bihar Assembly elections and has been able to win only six seats. The main attraction of the RJD-Congress campaign was party leader of opposition Gandhi’s talk of ‘vote theft’. His extensive tour across the state was aimed at influencing 116 assembly seats.
The aggressive campaign by the India Bloc, known as the Grand Alliance in Bihar, was centered around the Congress MP’s ‘vote theft’ allegations. Nevertheless, the pitch appears to have worn off among voters, as trends indicate a record victory for the NDA in the 2025 Bihar assembly elections.
For Congress, the trends are particularly worrying. The party not only performed poorly on the seats it contested, but also failed to contribute meaningfully to the alliance’s numbers.
Despite repeatedly leveling allegations against the Center and the Election Commission such as ‘voter theft’ and campaigning around the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) campaign and the ‘Voter Adhikar Yatra’, the Congress struggled to gain ground.
In the last press conference on ‘vote theft’ on November 6, Rahul Gandhi had claimed to show proof of a Brazilian model being registered in the voter list of Haryana 22 times under different names, including Seema and Sweety.
The LoP Gandhi’s ‘vote theft’ pitch as well as the Congress’ high-energy social media campaign were expected to energize the workers and strengthen the anti-incumbency wave, but did not get the momentum the party had hoped for.
Promising a ‘hydrogen bomb’ of evidence but never quite delivering it, Rahul Gandhi held three press conferences where he presented alleged evidence of how the ECI was enabling vote theft, mass deletion of votes and data manipulation.
On 6 November, LoP Gandhi again reiterated her “vote theft” allegation while appealing to “Gen Z brothers and sisters” to decide the future of Bihar. But this strategy also failed to impress voters.
In the 2020 elections, the Congress won 27 out of 70 seats with a conversion rate of 38 percent. However, this time its performance has declined even further.
Congress, once the dominant force in the political scene of Bihar, has gradually lost its grip on the state. In 2025, it contested the elections in alliance with Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) as the junior partner. The 2025 Bihar election results are one of the weakest performances of the party.
Congress was once one of the top three political parties in Bihar, especially before the bifurcation of the state in 2000. In the 1985 elections, the Congress won a clear majority with 196 seats, leading to Chandrashekhar Singh becoming the Chief Minister.
In the 1990 elections, Congress emerged as the second largest party with 71 seats, which is considered to be its last strong performance. The last phase of major leadership of the party came under the leadership of Jagannath Mishra, who served as Chief Minister in 1990.
However, the party’s influence declined rapidly thereafter. In the 1995 elections, its numbers fell sharply to 29 seats, marking the beginning of a long-term decline.
In 2000, Bihar was divided to form the new state Jharkhand. This dramatically reshaped the political landscape of Bihar, leading to the rise of regional parties like Janata Dal (United) and RJD. In the 2000 assembly elections held before partition, Congress stood fourth with 23 seats.
–IANS
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