Bihar elections result: Why Tejashwi Yadav failed to light ‘lantern’ despite RJD’s highest ‘vote share’?

After the RJD’s crushing defeat in the assembly elections, few would have predicted that Tejashwi Yadav, who was named the INDIA alliance’s chief ministerial candidate for the Bihar polls despite opposition from some allies, would end up disgraced rather than triumphant.

A decade after his promising electoral debut, which saw him become Deputy Chief Minister at just 25, Tejashwi, the son of party leader Lalu Prasad, narrowly won his seat in Raghopur, a traditional RJD stronghold, after trailing in the initial rounds.

He defeated the BJP’s Satish Kumar.

In the recent elections, the RJD, which had been the largest party in the 2020 Bihar polls with 75 seats, saw its tally plummet to less than half.

However, the party still secured the highest vote share of any single party in these elections. The RJD garnered 23 per cent of the vote, slightly down from its 23.11 per cent in the previous election, and fielded 144 candidates.

What is a vote share?

Vote share refers to the percentage of the total valid votes polled that a political party (or candidate) receives across an election. Vote share also reflects the party’s overall popularity and support base among voters. Still, it does not directly determine the number of seats won, especially in India’s first-past-the-post (FPTP) electoral system, where the candidate with the most votes in each constituency wins the seat, even if it’s not a majority.

What is the First Past the Post (FPTP) system?

The First-Past-the-Post (FPTP) system, also known as the simple majority system, declares the candidate with the most votes in a constituency as the winner. This method is used in India for direct elections to the Lok Sabha and State Legislative Assemblies.

Although FPTP is straightforward, it doesn’t always result in a truly representative outcome, as a candidate can win without securing a majority of the votes.

For instance, in the 2014 elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance won 336 seats with just 38.5% of the popular vote. Additionally, smaller parties that represent specific groups tend to have a lower chance of success under the FPTP system, according to a report by The Hindu.

Why did RJD not win despite the highest vote share?

In many constituencies, RJD candidates polled a high number of votes, helping the party boost the overall vote share, but still fell short of the winner, often an NDA candidate.

These “wasted” votes (second-place finishes with 40-45% in some seats) added to the party’s total tally but did not translate into seats.

In contrast, the NDA (BJP ~20%, JD(U) ~19%, and allies) had a more evenly distributed vote base across Bihar’s diverse castes and regions. This allowed them to secure narrower but decisive wins in far more constituencies, converting votes into seats more efficiently.

Another factor contributing to RJD’s higher vote share was the larger number of contested seats compared to the BJP and JD(U), both of which fought in 101 constituencies each. RJD contested 42 more seats, allowing it to garner votes from even its losing candidates, thereby boosting its overall vote share, according to the Hindustan Times report.

RJD received a total of 1,15,46,055 votes, while the BJP secured 1,00,81,143 votes.

Are such scenarios common?

This phenomenon is common in FPTP elections and has happened before with the RJD (in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls in Bihar, where it had the highest vote share but won few seats due to vote splits and concentration).

The NDA’s broader alliance and better seat-sharing also minimised vote fragmentation on their side, while opposition votes (including from allies like Congress and Left parties) were less cohesive.

(With inputs from agencies)