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Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s political alliance has won a crushing election victory in one of India’s poorest but most populous states, buoying his ruling Bharatiya Janata party ahead of a string of regional votes next year.
The National Democratic Alliance led by Modi’s BJP easily secured a majority of the 243 seats in the state legislature in this month’s vote in Bihar, according to results published by the election commission on Friday.
With all seats declared on Friday evening, the NDA had won 202 — far more than the 127 it held in the outgoing assembly. The opposition Indian National Congress’s Mahagathbandhan, or grand alliance, took only 33 seats, down from the previous 102.
Friday’s victory cements BJP dominance in India’s northern belt and solidifies Modi’s resurgent political momentum. The BJP won control of Delhi’s legislative assembly in February and elections in the states of Haryana and Maharashtra late last year after losing its parliamentary majority in national polls in June 2024.
Bihar, in eastern India, is the country’s poorest state with a GDP per capita lower than the sub-Saharan African average. But it is the country’s third most populous, with more than 130mn people, and is part of the BJP’s Hindu heartland.
The result boosted Modi’s government after a deadly car blast in central Delhi on Monday that has heightened regional tensions and lifted BJP morale ahead of other state elections next year in West Bengal, Assam, Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
“Bihar has paved the way for the BJP’s victory in Bengal,” Modi said in a speech at the party’s headquarters in Delhi after the result became clear.
While state votes are typically led by regional leaders, Modi was the NDA’s star campaigner in Bihar, highlighting the importance of the state for his party.
The state’s incumbent chief minister Nitish Kumar has sided with both Modi’s BJP and the opposition in the past, but his Janata Dal (United) party is currently part of the NDA.
The 74-year-old Kumar has run the state for most of the past two decades, where he has been credited with building infrastructure, especially roads, and welfare spending as well as bringing to an end a previously lawless era known as the “jungle raj”.
“I assure the brothers and sisters of Bengal that the BJP along with you will uproot the ‘jungle raj’ from Bengal as well,” Modi said.
“The NDA alliance has demonstrated complete unity in this election and secured a massive majority,” Kumar said on Friday.
Neerja Chowdhury, a political analyst, said the NDA’s victory in Bihar strengthened the national alliance in India’s parliament, where Kumar’s party has a dozen seats. “The ruling alliance gets solidified and therefore it gives comfort to the prime minister and his party at the centre,” she said.
The result, analysts said, was partly underpinned by a high turnout of women, millions of whom received cash transfers of Rs10,000 ($113) from Modi’s government under an employment plan ahead of the vote.
“All of this has gone down well with women as a constituency,” Chowdhury said.
Analysts said the NDA’s triumph was a setback for opposition leader Rahul Gandhi, with Congress winning just six seats after focusing on “vote chori”, or theft, allegations in the run-up to the polls.
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The opposition had pointed to a sweeping revision of the voter rolls, accusing the state government of attempting to manipulate the polls and warning similar efforts could be undertaken in future state elections.
The national election commission has denied such allegations, saying the voter roll cull was necessary because of changing population demographics, non-reported deaths and previous inclusion of foreign illegal immigrants.
The BJP has also repeatedly denied the accusations. Modi said on Friday that his alliance had “countered every lie of the opposition”.
