Officials carrying election materials from the distribution centre located at Jehanabad ahead of the polling for the second and last phase of the Assembly Election in Bihar on November 10, 2025.
| Photo Credit: R.V. Moorthy
The second and final phase of polling of Bihar Assembly election in 122 Assembly constituencies spread across about 20 districts will take place on November 11, and 1,302 candidates are in the fray. Polling will also be held in Jharkhand’s Ghatshila, which is going to bypoll.
According to data of Election Commission of India (ECI), the polling will be held at 45,399 polling stations in Bihar — 5,326 of them in urban areas and 40,073 in rural areas.
More than half the electorate (2.28 crore) are aged between 30 and 60 years. Only 7.69 lakh are in the 18-19 years age group. The total number of women voters in these 122 constituencies is 1.75 crore.
In the first phase of polling held for 121 constituencies in 18 districts on November 6, the State had recorded its highest voting percentage ever in the history with 64.66% turnout.
The final phase includes Assembly constituencies in Magadh, Mithilanchal, Seemanchal, Shahabad and Tirhut regions. Of 122 constituencies, 101 are general, 19 reserved for Scheduled Castes (SC) and two for Scheduled Tribes (ST). In the last Assembly election, the National Democratic Alliance’s (NDA) performance was poor in the Magadh and Shahabad regions, where it won just eight of out of 48 constituencies.
In 2020, the NDA won 66 of the 122 seats while the Grand Alliance (Mahagathbandhan) won 49. This time, the challenge for the the Grand Alliance has got tougher because ‘friendly’ fights between the alliance partners are taking place in 11 constituencies.
In the second phase, the BJP is contesting from the maximum number of seats in the NDA — 53, while the JD(U) is contesting from 44. The Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas), led by Chirag Paswan, has fielded candidates in 15, the HAM(S) in six and the RLM in four.
In the Grand Alliance the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) is contesting from 71 constituencies, the maximum among the allies, the Congress from 37 constituencies, the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) (Liberation) from six, the Communist Party of India (CPI) from five and the Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP) from eight. In all, 127 INDIA bloc candidates are in the fray in 122 constituencies.
The final phase is crucial for the Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular), led by Union Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi, and the Rashtriya Lok Morcha (RLM), headed by former Union Minister and Rajya Sabha member Upendra Kushwaha.
Of the two phases, these parties contest from their most number of constituencies in the final phase. Mr. Kushwaha’s wife Snehlata’s fate is at stake in Sasaram. Mr. Manjhi daughter-in-law Deepa Kumari is contesting from Imamganj and Deepa Kumari’s mother Jyoti Devi from Barachatti.
Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee (BPCC) president Rajesh Ram’s fate would also be decided in this phase. He is contesting from Kutumba in Aurangabad district. In Seemanchal, this phase is crucial for the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul (AIMIM), led by Asaduddin Owaisi, which has fielded 12 of its 28 candidates in the region, including AIMIM state president Akhtarul Iman from Amour assembly seat. In the last election, the AIMIM won five seats.
The other prominent names contesting in this phase include LJP (RV) state president Raju Tiwari from Govindganj, HAM(S) state and president Anil Kumar from Tikari, besides former Assembly Speaker Uday Narayan Choudhary, former Deputy Chief Minister Tarkeshwar Prasad and Congress Legislative Party (CLP) leader Shakeel Ahmed Khan.
The fate of 12 Ministers of the Nitish Kumar government is also going to be decided in the second phase, the prominent among them being Energy Minister Bijendra Prasad Yadav from Supaul, Industry Minister Nitish Mishra from Jhanjharpur and Transport Minister Sheela Mandal from Phulparas.
Published – November 10, 2025 11:08 pm IST
