Bihar Sets New Record with 64.66% Voter Turnout

• Bihar registers highest-ever voter turnout at 64.66% in first phase of 2025 polls.
• Election Commission thanks voters and poll officials for record participation.
• Opposition questions deletion of 47 lakh names from revised voter list.
• Experts say high turnout could hint at anti-incumbency against ruling alliance.

GG News Bureau
Patna, 6th Nov: Bihar recorded a historic voter turnout of 64.66 per cent in the first phase of the 2025 Assembly elections, marking the highest participation ever in the state’s electoral history. The Election Commission said the figure surpasses previous highs of 62.57 per cent in the 2000 Assembly polls and 64.6 per cent in the 1998 Lok Sabha election.

Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar expressed gratitude to the voters for their enthusiastic participation and praised polling staff for ensuring smooth conduct across constituencies.

The record turnout comes despite the controversial deletion of 47 lakh names during the special intensive revision (SIR) of voter lists earlier this year, which reduced the total electorate from 7.89 crore to 7.42 crore. Opposition parties, led by the RJD and Congress, alleged that the revision disproportionately targeted poor and marginalised voters.

Analysts believe the high voter turnout could signal anti-incumbency sentiment against the ruling JD(U)-BJP alliance, continuing Bihar’s trend where increased participation has often coincided with political shifts.

In 2010, Nitish Kumar’s JD(U)-BJP coalition won a sweeping victory with 52.73 per cent turnout. Five years later, when he joined Lalu Prasad Yadav’s RJD, voter participation rose above 56 per cent, and the alliance triumphed again. In 2020, the JD(U)-BJP combine returned to power with a 57.29 per cent turnout.

This year’s first phase turnout is 7.37 per cent higher than in 2020 and 8.46 per cent more than the corresponding phase that year.

Voting took place for 121 of 243 Assembly seats, with the remaining 122 constituencies going to polls on November 11. Counting will be held on November 14.

Key constituencies in this round included Raghopur, where Tejashwi Yadav is contesting; Tarapur, where Deputy CM Samrat Choudhary is in the fray; Alinagar, represented by singer Maithili Thakur of the BJP; and Mokama, where JDU candidate Anant Singh’s arrest added drama.

In 2020, the RJD emerged as the single-largest party with 75 seats, followed by the BJP (74), JDU (43), and Congress (28). With record participation this year, Bihar’s voters may well be setting the stage for another political reshuffle.