New DelhiNovember 20, 2025 12:55 PM IST
First published on: Nov 20, 2025 at 12:48 PM IST
As the NDA government led by Nitish Kumar took oath in Patna on Thursday — the 10th time for Kumar — the scale of the victory is illustrated by the strike rates of both the JD(U) and the BJP in the election.
Both parties contested 101 seats each out of 243, and won 89 and 85 constituencies, respectively. This put their strike rates, or the percentage share of seats won out of the total contested, at 88.1% and 84.2%. While the JD(U)’s strike rate is the party’s highest ever in Bihar, the BJP fell just short of the 89.2% in 2010, when it won 92 of the 102 seats contested. That is the highest in any Bihar election since 1951 among parties that contested at least 10 seats in an election, with the BJP’s 2025 strike rate ranking second, followed by the JD(U)’s this year at third. In 2010, the JD(U) registered its highest tally of seats at 115, from 141 contested as the senior NDA ally, for a strike rate of 81.6% (the fourth highest in the state’s history). However, none of these wins are in the top 10 in terms of strike rate when all state elections conducted since 1951 are considered.
Among the Opposition parties in Bihar, the RJD recorded its best strike rate in 2015, when it contested 101 seats in alliance with the JD(U) and won 80 seats at a rate of 79.2%, the fifth-highest in the state. The Congress’s highest was in 1951, the first-ever election, when it won 74.2% of the 322 seats contested (at the time, not only were some seats represented by multiple members each, but the state boundaries also included Jharkhand).
Among Bihar’s 10 highest strike rates is the Janata Party’s 68.8% recorded in 1977 (the eighth-highest on record), when it swept national and state elections across the country in the first elections after the Emergency.
The performance of Chirag Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) this year — 19 wins from 28 seats contested — was enough to rank as the state’s ninth highest strike rate at 67.9%. The list of top 10 highest strike rates across all Bihar elections is rounded off by the Congress’s 1957 election performance that saw the party win 210 of 312 seats contested for a strike rate of 67.3%.
Top 10 strike rates in Bihar Assembly polls
There have been just four instances of a party’s strike rate exceeding 80% (all since 2010), and 24 cases of the strike rate crossing 50%. The Congress has recorded the most 50%-plus strike rates at six instances (most recently in 2015, when it won 27 of 41 seats contested at a 65.9% strike rate), followed by the JD(U) and the BJP at four each, and the RJD at two.
An analysis of the four major Bihar parties – regional parties JD(U) and RJD, and national parties BJP and Congress – shows that their strike rates, more often than not, have been below 50%. Among these four parties, the lowest ever strike rate was recorded by the Congress in 2010, when it contested 243 seats on its own and won just four, a paltry 1.6%.
Strike rates around India
In state elections to date, there have been three instances of parties winning all the seats on offer and 32 cases of parties crossing 90% (among parties that contested at least 10 seats).
Two of the three instances of a 100% strike rate occurred in Sikkim. The first came in 1989, when Chief Minister Nar Bahadur Bhandari’s Sikkim Sangram Parishad (SSP) won all 32 Assembly seats. This feat was repeated by the Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF), led by India’s longest-serving CM Pawan Chamling, in 2009. In fact, five of the 10 highest strike rates on record since 1951 have come in Sikkim.
Top 10 strike rates in all Assembly polls
Top 10 strike rates in all Assembly polls
image.pngBesides the Sikkim cases, the only other major party to record a 100% strike rate is actor-politician Pawan Kalyan’s JanaSena Party (JSP), which won all 21 seats it contested as part of the Telugu Desam Party-led alliance in the Andhra Pradesh Assembly elections last year.
After Sikkim, the states most represented among the top 10 strike rates are Tamil Nadu, with four instances and Andhra Pradesh, with three instances.
Breaking down the numbers by parties shows that the Congress has crossed the 90%-mark most frequently at four instances, followed by the SSP, DMK, CPI(M) and CPI at three each, and the SDF and AIADMK at two each.
Among the most notable elections that saw the strike rate cross 90% is the AIADMK’s 1991 victory, when the party contested 168 of Tamil Nadu’s 234 seats and won 164 (97.6%). The resounding win launched Jayalalithaa into her first term as the CM. But the ensuing 1996 Assembly polls saw a near complete reversal, with the M Karunanidhi-led DMK returning to power after winning 173 of the 182 seats it contested at a strike rate of 95.1%.
A more recent sweeping victory was that of the TDP in last year’s Andhra elections, when the party won 135 of the 144 seats it contested (93.8%).