The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has made history in the Bihar Assembly Elections this time by emerging as the single largest party, securing 89 seats. Nitish Kumar’s JD(U) won 85 seats. Meanwhile, the Mahagathbandhan, led by RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav, failed to cross the 50-seat mark. While some candidates won by record margins, others clinched victory or faced defeat by incredibly thin differences.
Here are the key seats where the smallest margins decided the outcome:
Tightest Contests by Margin
- JDU Candidate Wins by Just 27 Votes: The candidate with the narrowest victory margin is Ramcharan Sah of the JD(U), who won the Sandesh assembly seat by just 27 votes. He received 80,598 votes, while RJD’s Deepu Singh secured 80,571 votes. In this constituency, Prashant Kishor’s Jan Suraaj Party (JSP) played a spoiler role, as its candidate, Rajiv Ranjan Raj, received 6,040 votes.
- Communist Leader Loses by a Mere 95 Votes: In the Agiwan assembly seat, considered a bastion of the Left, BJP candidate Mahesh Paswan won by a margin of just 95 votes. Mahesh Paswan received 69,412 votes, defeating the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) candidate, Shiv Prakash Ranjan, who got 69,317 votes.
Other Close Finishes
| Constituency | Winning Party/Candidate | Winning Margin | Key Opponent |
| Balrampur | LJP (Ram Vilas)‘s Sangeeta Devi | 389 votes | AIMIM’s Mohammad Adil Hussain |
| Bakhtiarpur | LJP (Ram Vilas)‘s Arun Kumar | 981 votes | RJD’s Anirudh Kumar |
| Bodhgaya | RJD‘s Kumar Sarvajeet | 881 votes | LJP (Ram Vilas)’s Shyamdev Paswan |
| Chanpatia | Congress‘ Abhishek Ranjan | 602 votes | BJP’s Umakant Singh |
| Dhaka | RJD‘s Faisal Rahman | 178 votes | BJP’s Pawan Kumar Jaiswal |
| Forbesganj | Congress‘ Manoj Vishwas | 221 votes | BJP’s Vidya Sagar Keshari |
Key Takeaways from the Margins
- AIMIM Missed an Extra Seat: The AIMIM candidate in Balrampur lost by only 389 votes, suggesting the party could have increased its tally had the contest been tighter.
- RJD’s Narrow Victory in Dhaka: RJD candidate Faisal Rahman secured his seat in Dhaka by just 178 votes against BJP’s Pawan Kumar Jaiswal.
- The Impact of Vote Splitters: The Sandesh result highlights how the presence of minor parties like Jan Suraaj Party (JSP) can drastically alter the outcome in a close two-way fight.
These tightly contested seats underscore the unpredictable nature of the Bihar elections, where even a handful of votes determined who would go to the Assembly and who would sit on the opposition benches.
