New Delhi: For perhaps the first time in three decades, the RJD may not have a single member in Rajya Sabha when the next Bihar assembly elections comes around in 2030. The RJD won only 16 of the 141 seats it contested and was leading in eight other constituencies, witnessing the most dramatic fall for a party that had emerged as the single largest party in the 2020 elections.
The ruling NDA won 148 seats in the 243-member Bihar Assembly, and was leading in 55 other constituencies.
It’s Mahagathbandhan allies, comprising the Congress and Left parties, also had a forgivable count.
The RJD now has five members in the upper house, but it will gradually lose these seats in 2026 and 2028, according to the Times of India.
In 2030, RJD may retain one of its seats if it gets support of non-NDA parties like AIMIM.
Out of five RJD members in Rajya Sabha, the term of two – Prem Chand Gupta, the party’s leader in the House, and A D Singh – will end in April 2026.
The third, Faiyaz Ahmad, will retire in July 2028. The remaining two, Manoj Kumar Jha and Sanjay Yadav, will complete their term in 2030.
RJD leader Abdul Bari Siddiqui on Friday said the party would “sit together” on Saturday to assess its performance in the Bihar assembly polls.
“We will sit tomorrow and analyse the results, what went wrong and what the shortcomings were. Whatever we have to say, we will say tomorrow,” Siddiqui told reporters, striking a cautious note as the opposition alliance appeared headed for one of its poorest electoral outings in recent years.
The BJP emerged as the single-largest party with an around 95 per cent strike rate.
The Mahagathbandhan, comprising the RJD, Congress and Left parties, bagged only 22 seats and was leading in 12 other constituencies. The RJD won only 16 of the 141 seats it contested and was leading in eight other constituencies.
Next year, elections will be held for five vacancies, including two from JDU and another from Rashtriya Lok Morcha (both NDA allies).
The landslide in the 2025 elections is likely to help NDA nominate its members in all five seats from Bihar next year. Similarly, five members – three from BJP, and one each from JDU and RJD – will retire in 2028.
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