Supporters gather at a rally by LoP in the Lok Sabha and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, unseen, during Bihar Assembly elections, in Kishanganj
One of the most closely watched trends in the Bihar 2025 Assembly Elections was the Congress party’s performance within the Mahagatbandhan (grand alliance). In the 2020 elections, the party had recorded the lowest contested vote share and strike rate among the alliance’s major partners. The weak performance of the Congress in the 2020 polls was one of the main reasons behind the close contest that year.
Data shows that the Congress’ poor performance continued in 2025 and, in fact, further worsened. This trend becomes clearer when looking at the strike rate, which is calculated by dividing the number of seats a party won by the number of seats it contested.
The table below shows the strike rate of major parties in the 2025 Bihar Assembly Elections, 2020 Assembly Elections and the 2024 Lok Sabha elections (assembly segments were used)
As seen in the table, the Congress’ strike rate in the 2025 polls was 9.8%, the lowest among all Mahagatbandhan alliance partners once again, though the Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) Liberation’s strike rate was only slightly higher at around 10%. The Congress’ strike rate has fallen from over 27% in 2020 and over 22% in 2024.
In contrast, the BJP’s strike rate rose sharply from around 65% in both 2020 and 2024 to over 90% in the 2025 Bihar Assembly Elections. The JD(U), too, improved its strike rate from 74% in 2024 to more than 82% in 2025.
Another indicator of this decline is the contested vote share — the percentage of votes a party secures in the constituencies it contests. In the 2025 Bihar Assembly Elections, the Congress’ contested vote share of 34.1% was lower than the Rashtriya Janata Dal’s 38.9%. It is also lower than the CPI (ML)(L)’s contested vote share of 35.8%. Moreover, the Congress’ contested vote share has declined from the 41.2% it recorded in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
The table below shows the contested vote share of parties and alliances in the 2025 Bihar Assembly Elections, 2020 Assembly Elections and the 2024 Lok Sabha elections (assembly segments were used)
The spoiler effect created by Asaduddin Owaisi’s All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) and Prashant Kishor’s Jan Suraaj Party, also played a role in the decline of Congress’ vote share.
Published – November 14, 2025 07:16 pm IST