Bihar Elections 2020: A Lookback At How Bihar Voted In 2015 Assembly Polls

In the assembly elections in 2015, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) had emerged as the largest party by winning 80 seats, while the ruling Janata Dal won 71 seats and Congress had remained the weak link with 27 seats to its name.

(L-R) Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, Nitish Kumar, chief minister of Bihar, Sharad Yadav of the Janata Dal (United) party, Lalu Prasad Yadav of Rashtriya Janata Dal party pose for photographers ahead of a press conference in New Delhi on April 15, 2015. AFP PHOTO / SAJJAD HUSSAIN (Photo by SAJJAD HUSSAIN / AFP)

Bihar Elections: Bihar is bustling with politics as the Election Commission has announced dates for the much-awaited assembly polls in the state. A neck and neck tussle is expected in the state where caste and dynasty play a key role in elections. The coalition of Bharatiya Janata Party and Janta Dal United (JDU) and LJP will be pitched against the grand alliance of Congress , Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and RLSP. Here's a lookback at the 2015 elections:  In the assembly elections in 2015, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) had emerged as the largest party by winning 80 seats, while the ruling Janata Dal won 71 seats and Congress had remained the weak link with 27 seats to its name. The Bharatiya Janata Party managed to win 53 seats despite riding on the Modi wave, followed by two seats by the LJP and one seat by Jitan Ram Manjhi-led Hindustani Awam Morcha-Secular. Other parties had won 10 seats in the state. The BJP despite winning only 53 seats got the maximum percentage of vote share with 24 per cent, followed by the RJD with 18 per cent and JD-U 17 per cent. The Congress managed to get seven per cent vote share and LJP got around 4.8 per cent vote share. The polls brought a new lease of life to the party as Prasad and Kumar took all by surprise as they buried the hatchet and formed the Grand Alliance taking the Congress - a spent force in the state - on board. While Nitish Kumar became the Chief Minister, both sons of Prasad -Tej Pratap and Tejashwi, occupied cabinet berths with a swagger that stemmed from the RJD emerging as the single largest party with 80 seats under its belt. The government was left in a helpless situation when on not being able to face the backlash after the name of Tejashwi  Yadav appeared in a money-laundering case, Nitish Kumar decided to part ways with RJD and joined NDA in July 2017. The abrupt exit of Kumar then left the grand alliance in a crisis and RJD’s continuous chorus about JDU’s betrayal of mandate could not get it any traction.