The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) emerged as the single largest party in the Bihar assembly elections 2025, winning 89 of the 101 seats it contested.
Moreover, the party registered an impressive 88 percent strike rate. The BJP-led NDA secured 204 seats in the 243-member assembly – defying all exit polls.
Yet, the saffron party faltered in 12 assembly constituencies. In four seats, the BJP found itself trapped in a tight contest, with the margin of defeat being under 1,000 votes. Let’s take a quick look.
Where the BJP lost with paper-thin margins
1. Ramgarh: The BJP lost Ramgarh to the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) by merely 30 votes.
2. Dhaka: The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) won Dhaka by 178 votes, defeating the BJP.
3. Forbesganj: The BJP’s defeat margin remained 221.
Moreover, Seemanchal saw four of the BJP’s 12 defeats, with the Congress and Asaddudin Owaisi’s AIMIM securing impressive gains in these minority-heavy regions. In Kishanganj, Congress’s Qamrul Hoda defeated BJP’s Sweety Kumari by 12,794 votes. In Forbesganj (Araria), Congress candidate Manoj Bishwas defeated BJP’s Vidya Sagar Keshri by 221 votes.
In Purnea’s Baisi seat, the AIMIM secured victory against the BJP by 27,251 votes. In Kochadhaman, BJP’s Bina Devi finished third as AIMIM’s Sarwar Alam won by 37,002 votes.
Defeats in the Mithila-Koshi belt
In Bisfi, BJP MLA Haribhushan Thakur was defeated by RJD’s Asif Ahmed by a narrow margin of 8,107 votes. In Saharsa, a seat the BJP had won four of the last five times, the IIP, an ally of the Mahagathbandhan, won by over 2,000 votes.
At Raghopur, a traditional RJD stronghold, Tejashwi Yadav defeated the BJP’s Satish Kumar by 14,532 votes, after trailing for hours. In Chanpatia, Congress candidate Abhishek Ranjan defeated the BJP’s Umakant Singh by just 602 votes. Moreover, in the Magadh belt, the BJP saw its defeat in Goh at the hands of the RJD’s Amrendra Kumar.