Number Theory: What do the 2024 results mean for the RJD in Bihar?
This is first of a two-part series which looks at RJD’s political predicament in Bihar. The second part will look at past election results in Bihar.
Bihar and Uttar Pradesh have been the epicentre of what is referred to as Mandal politics in India. These are also states which were pretty much swept by the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in 2014 and 2019 elections. The BJP ceded a lot of ground to the Samajwadi Party (SP)-Congress alliance in 2024 in Uttar Pradesh, and the NDA tally came down from 64 to 36 between 2019 and 2024. However, the 2024 results did not bring a similar revival for the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) led alliance in Bihar. To be sure, the RJD managed to win four parliamentary constituencies (PCs) this time, compared to zero in 2019. But the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) comprising the BJP and the Janata Dal (United), or JD(U), managed to win 30 out of the 40 PCs in the state.
