2020 Bihar Legislative Assembly election

The Bihar Legislative Assembly election was held in three phases through October–November to elect members to the Seventeenth Bihar Legislative Assembly. The term of the previous Sixteenth Legislative Assembly of Bihar ended on 29 November 2020.

The election was held in three phases for a total of 243 seats:- the first for 71 seats on 28 October 2020, the second for 94 seats on 3 November 2020, and the third for the remaining 78 seats on 7 November 2020. The counting of votes began on 10 November 2020 and the incumbent National Democratic Alliance emerged as the winner with 125 elected MLAs, whereas the principal opposition coalition of Mahagathbandhan won 110 seats. Other minor coalitions and parties won 7 seats while only 1 newly elected MLA was an independent.

After the elections, the incumbent Chief Minister Nitish Kumar was elected as the leader of the National Democratic Alliance in Bihar and was sworn in again as Chief Minister, whereas two new deputy Chief Ministers, Tarkishore Prasad and Renu Devi were inducted to the new ministry. On the other side, Tejashwi Yadav was elected Leader of the Opposition, and also leader of the Mahagathbandhan alliance. Later Vijay Kumar Sinha was elected the new Speaker of the Bihar Legislative Assembly.

Background

Outlined in Article 168 of the Constitution of India, the Bihar Legislative Assembly is the lower house of the bicameral legislature of Bihar and not a permanent body and subject to dissolution. The tenure of the Legislative Assembly is five years from the date appointed for its first sitting unless dissolved sooner. Members of the Legislative Assembly are directly elected by the people. The Tenure of current Bihar Legislative Assembly is scheduled to end on 29 November 2020.

In the previous election, an alliance of three Major Parties consisting of Janata Dal (United), Rashtriya Janata Dal and Indian National Congress named as Mahagathbandhan won against its primary opposition, the Bharatiya Janata Party led National Democratic Alliance. However, in 2017, the Janata Dal (United) Chief Minister Nitish Kumar left the Mahagathbandhan and joined the National Democratic Alliance. While Nitish Kumar remained the Chief Minister, Sushil Kumar Modi of the Bharatiya Janata Party replaced Tejashwi Yadav as the Deputy Chief Minister.

Issues

The main issue was that of the jobs and the economy. Bihar, for a long time, has been an economically backward state and sends large numbers of migrant laborers to cities across the country. Due to the coronavirus pandemic lockdown, thousands of migrant laborers were forced to return to their home states due to lack of work, and Bihar was one of the most affected by the ensuing humanitarian crisis. Many of these workers blamed the current government for not having jobs for them in the first place, and not providing jobs when the lockdown started. There was also a significant anti-incumbency wave against Nitish, who had been CM for 15 years.

The three agriculture bills passed by the Indian Parliament amid nationwide protests was expected to play a key role in the elections.

Issues such as the lack of employment, alleged politicisation of flood relief in the aftermath of the 2019 Bihar floods and alleged inability of the state government to handle the COVID-19 pandemic were expected to be made an election issue by the opposition parties. The limited digital connectivity in Bihar and the migrant crisis were among the issues which may have had an impact on campaigning and poll outcomes.

The death of the former Lok Janshakti Party president and union cabinet minister, Ram Vilas Paswan on 8 October 2020 was also speculated to have an effect on the prospects of the competing parties. It was reported that the BJP accorded special focus on the politically significant Mithila region which comprises 22 of the 38 districts of the state including Darbhanga, Madhubani, Supaul, Araria, Purnia, Katihar and Samastipur.

Schedule

On 25 September, Election Commission of India announced the dates for Bihar Assembly elections.

Parties and alliances

National Democratic Alliance

The National Democratic Alliance in Bihar is the ruling political group headed by the chief minister Nitish Kumar and comprising primarily the Janata Dal (United) and the Bharatiya Janata Party in the legislative assembly.

In the previous election, the alliance was led by the Bharatiya Janata Party alongside three smaller allies namely the Lok Janshakti Party, the Rashtriya Lok Samta Party and the Hindustani Awam Morcha, while the Janata Dal (United) had contested as part of the current opposition Mahagathbandan. In 2017, the Janata Dal (United) switched alliance which caused the Mahagathbandan government to fall and the National Democratic Alliance came to power. In 2018, two of the partners, the Rashtriya Lok Samata Party and the Hindustani Awam Morcha left the alliance.

During the campaigning phase in August 2020, the alliance was re-joined by the Hindustani Awam Morcha which held one seat in the legislature. Later, the alliance was also joined in by the Vikassheel Insaan Party in October 2020. The campaign however faced problems with persistent attacks on the Janata Dal (United) by the Lok Janshakti Party. Chirag Paswan, the leader of the party in the state was called to Delhi to negotiate with the national leadership of the Bharatiya Janata Party, in the end the Lok Janshakti Party quit the alliance stating that they would contest all seats against the Janata Dal (United) but not against the Bharatiya Janata Party. Following the development, several notable leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party including the state vice president and 2 sitting legislators joined the Lok Janshakti Party to contest against Janata Dal (United) candidates. Later during the campaigning period in October 2020, the Bharatiya Janata Party officially cut ties with the Lok Janshakti Party stating that the National Democratic Alliances in Bihar consisted of the four parties.

According to political analysts the Lok Janshakti Party was unlikely to make any electoral gains but would act as spoilers for the Janata Dal (United) candidates, the development was suggested to have been orchestrated by the Bharatiya Janata Party to gain leverage over the Janata Dal (United) by reducing its final tally. The Bharatiya Janata Party at the time re-asserted that Nitish Kumar would remain the chief ministerial face of the alliance.

Both the Lok Janshakti Party and the Janata Dal (United) are expected to hold sway among certain sections of Scheduled caste voters while the Bharatiya Janta Party are expected to draws its support base from Forward caste voters.

The Janata Dal (United) though relied upon its core voters by giving importance to its Luv-Kush equation in ticket distribution, also gave good representation to the forward castes and EBCs. For 115 seats which it contested 17 forward caste were given party tickets while the Koeri and Kurmi candidates got 17 and 7 seats respectively. The EBCs on the other hand contested on 21 seats out of 115.

Mahagathbandhan

The Mahagathbandhan is the main opposition political coalition comprising primarily the United Progressive Alliance members Rashtriya Janata Dal and Indian National Congress along with left–wing parties such as CPI and CPI (M).

In the previous election, the Mahagathbandhan formed and initially comprised the Rashtriya Janata Dal, the Janata Dal (United) and the Indian National Congress. It was able to form government following the election but the government fell when the Janata Dal (United) switched sides and joined the National Democratic Alliance. In the opposition, the alliance was joined in by smaller parties like the Rashtriya Lok Samta Party, the Hindustan Awami Morcha and the Vikassheel Insaan Party. The three parties however opted out of the alliance between August–October 2020. In September 2020, the Samajwadi Party which had contested in previous elections in Bihar without success, declared that they would not contest this time and instead support the Rashtriya Janata Dal.

In the meantime, the alliance after negotiations were joined in by the left–wing parties in Bihar; namely the Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) Liberation, the Communist Party of India and the Communist Party of India (Marxist). The new arrangement was described as an experiment beyond the caste based politics in Bihar with a caste plus class strategy. The communist parties in Bihar had historically held a large presence in the state that was reduced following the Mandal Commission, the Liberation group had retained some of its former base and had emerged as the largest non-alliance party in the previous election.

The seat sharing agreement was finalised on 3 October 2020 with the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha included in the alliance. On 7 October, the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha opted out of the alliance in Bihar over disagreements on seat sharing while maintaining that they will continue to uphold their alliance in the state of Jharkhand.