Women ‘shape’ poll outcome, yet struggle to find representation in Bihar’s politics

The two phases of the Bihar elections saw 4,34,000 more women voters exercising their franchise as compared to men. Their huge participation played a key role in giving NDA a landslide victory, yet women candidates struggled to stay afloat in the state’s political landscape.The women turnout in the Bihar elections was 71.6 percent, while their representation among candidates was hardly 10 percent. Out of 2,615 candidates, only 258 were women, the lowest-ever representation of women in a state that boasts of high participation by women voters.

The Bahujan Samaj Party led with 26 female candidates, followed by Jan Suraaj that fielded 25 candidates, RJD (23), BJP and JD(U) (13 each), and Congress five. Meanwhile, the CPI (M-L) Liberation party and the VIP also nominated one woman each.

Among these, Maithili Thakur who made her election debut won on a BJP ticket from Alinagar. BJP’s Renu Devi, Devanti Yadav, Kavita Devi and Nisha Singh also registered a win from Bettaih, Narpatganj, Kodha and Pranpur.

Among JD(U) candidates, Shalini Mishra won from Kesaria, Shweta Gupta from Sheohar, Sheela Kumari from Phulparas, Leshi Singh from Dhamdha, and Komal Singh from Gaighat.

Although the RJD witnessed a major setback, its demale candidate from Nawada, Vibha Devi, secured her seat in the Assembly.

In the 2020 Assembly election, 26 women MLAs were elected out of 370 female candidates. Among the major parties in Bihar, JD(U) had fielded 22 women candidates.

The RJD has been increasing the number of female candidates from nine women candidates in 2015 to 16 in 2020 and 23 in 2025. This time Congress had fielded five women.

Data shows that women’s participation in voting in comparison to men has consistently increased in the state. In 2010, 54.49 women cast their vote against 51.12 percent men. In 2015, the gap widened with women voters recording a 60.48 percent turnout as against 53.32 percent for men. In 2020, 59.69 percent of women voters cast their vote, while only 54.45 percent of men exercised the franchise.

In an effort to provide greater representation to women in legislature, the Centre is planning to roll out 33 per cent reservation for women in Parliament as well as state Assemblies in the 2029 Lok Sabha poll.