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All 318 seats in the Bihar Legislative Assembly 160 seats needed for a majority | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Registered | 27,743,190 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Turnout | 51.51% | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Elections to the Bihar Legislative Assembly were held in February 1967, to elect members of the 318 constituencies in Bihar, India. The Indian National Congress won the most seats as well as the popular vote, but Mahamaya Prasad Sinha of the Jana Kranti Dal was appointed as the Chief Minister of Bihar. [1] No single party had won a majority of seats, [2]
Parties like Samyukt Socialist Party, Jan Sangh, CPI, Jan Kranti Dal and Praja Socialist together formed the government. Although the second largest party after Congress was the Samyukt Socialist Party and its leader Karpoori Thakur had a stake in the post of Chief Minister, but other parties were not ready.In such a situation, all the parties agreed on the name of Mahamaya Prasad Sinha of Jan Kranti Dal(of Kamakhya Narain Singh), who became the Chief Minister of Bihar in March 1967, while Karpoori Thakur became the Deputy Chief Minister. However, the government couldn't last even for a year. [3]
Opposition to the caste composition of the ministry led to some members of the samyukt socialist party, provoked by Health minister BP Mandal(who was forced to resign by Ram Manohar Lohia), join hands with the congress to form new government headed by first backward chief minister BP Mandal, which lasted just 50 days. [4]
However, there was a tussle going on within the Congress on the issue of supporting the Mandal government. Angered by this decision of the party, 17 MLAs rebelled under the leadership of former Chief Minister Binodanand Jha, leader of the anti-KB Sahay group. Formed a separate faction in the name of Loktrantik Congress and withdrew support from the Mandal government. Only one month old BP Mandal government had to resign and in the new manipulation, MLA of this Loktrantik Congress camp, Bhola Paswan Shastri became first Dalit chief minister with the help of opposition MLAs. Even his ministry lasted for just 4 months [4]
The weakening of previously dominant congress party, rising aspirations of backward classes(forward-backward tussle) and individual greed of leaders was the main reasons for these short lived govertments. [5]
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| Party | Votes | % | Seats | +/– | |
| Indian National Congress | 4,479,460 | 33.09 | 128 |  57 | |
| Samyukta Socialist Party | 2,385,961 | 17.62 | 68 | New | |
| Bharatiya Jana Sangh | 1,410,722 | 10.42 | 26 |  23 | |
| Praja Socialist Party | 942,889 | 6.96 | 18 | 11 | |
| Communist Party of India | 935,977 | 6.91 | 24 | 12 | |
| Jan Kranti Dal | 451,412 | 3.33 | 13 | New | |
| Swatantra Party | 315,184 | 2.33 | 3 | 47 | |
| Communist Party of India (Marxist) | 173,656 | 1.28 | 4 | New | |
| Republican Party of India | 23,893 | 0.18 | 1 | New | |
| Independents | 2,419,469 | 17.87 | 33 | 21 | |
| Total | 13,538,623 | 100.00 | 318 | 0 | |
| Valid votes | 13,538,623 | 73.37 | |||
| Invalid/blank votes | 4,914,436 | 26.63 | |||
| Total votes | 18,453,059 | 100.00 | |||
| Registered voters/turnout | 27,743,190 | 66.51 | |||
| Source: ECI [6] | |||||
Janata Dal (United) ("People's Party (United)"), abbreviated as JD(U), is a social-democratic and secularist Indian political party, rooted mainly in eastern and north-eastern India, whose stated goals are promoting social justice and lifting up marginalised people. JD(U) is recognised as a state party in the states of Bihar, where it heads the government, Manipur, where it is part of the government coalition in the legislative assembly, and Arunachal Pradesh. JD(U), as part of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance, won 12 seats in the 2024 Indian general election, making it the seventh largest party in the Lok Sabha.
The Rashtriya Janata Dal is an Indian political party, mainly based in the state of Bihar. The party was founded in 1997 by Lalu Prasad Yadav.
Babu Bindheshwari Prasad Mandal was a scion of the erstwhile Murho Estate and an Indian politician who chaired the Mandal Commission. Mandal came from a rich Yadav landlord family from Madhepura in Northern Bihar. He served as the seventh Chief Minister of Bihar in 1968, but he resigned after 30 days. As a parliamentarian, he served as the chairman of the Second Backward Classes Commission, popularly known as the Mandal Commission. The commission's report mobilized a segment of the Indian population known as "Other Backward Classes" (OBCs) and initiated a fierce debate on policies related to underrepresented and underprivileged groups in Indian politics.
Teli is a caste traditionally occupied in the oil pressing and trade in India, Nepal, and Pakistan. Members may be either Hindu or Muslim; Muslim Teli are called Roshandaar or Teli Malik. India's Prime minister Narendra Modi is from Teli caste.
Raghunath Jha was an Indian politician who was Union minister of State for Heavy Industries and Public Enterprise and member of the 14th Lok Sabha of India. He represented the Bettiah constituency of Bihar and was a member of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) political party. Born in Village Amba Ojha Tola, in Sheohar He started his career by becoming the Mukhiya of his home panchayat in the year 1967. Thereafter, in 1967 he became Chairman of Zila Parishad. He started his legislative career in 1972 when he was elected as a MLA on Congress Ticket. He was elected from Sheohar for a record six consecutive terms before 1998. He was twice elected as a Member of Parliament from Gopalganj and Bettiah respectively.
Devendra Prasad Yadav is a former member of the 14th Lok Sabha of India. He represented the Jhanjharpur constituency of Bihar and was a member of the Rashtriya Janata Dal, Janata Dal (United) and Janata Dal. He joined Jan Suraaj Party in August 2024.
Karpoori Thakur was an Indian politician who served two terms as the 11th Chief Minister of Bihar, first from December 1970 to June 1971, and then from June 1977 to April 1979. He was popularly known as Jan Nayak. On 26 January 2024, he was posthumously awarded India's highest civilian honour, the Bharat Ratna, by the Government of India. This was announced by the President of India Draupadi Murmu on 23 January 2024.
Maharaja Kamakhya Narain Singh Bahadur of Ramgarh, Jharkhand was the Maharaja Bahadur of Ramgarh Raj and later a politician. He belonged to the Rathore clan of Rajput.
The Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee or (BPCC) is the political unit of the Indian National Congress for the state of Bihar. It is responsible for organizing and coordinating the party's activities and campaigns within the state, as well as selecting candidates for local, state, and national elections for all districts of Bihar. Its head office is situated in Patna at the Sadaqat Ashram.
Ram Sundar Das was an Indian politician and former Chief Minister of Bihar state. He was a two-time Member of Parliament from Hajipur constituency.
Satish Prasad Singh was an Indian politician. He was the Chief Minister of Bihar for a very brief tenure of just five days in 1968.
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Renu Devi is an Indian politician who served as the 7th Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar from 16 November 2020 to 9 August 2022.
Babu Jagdeo Prasad, alternatively spelled as Jagdev Prasad and popularly known as Jagdev Babu, was an Indian politician and a member of the Bihar Legislative Assembly who served as Bihar's deputy chief minister in 1968 for four days in the Satish Prasad Singh cabinet. A great socialist and a proponent of Arjak culture, he was the founder of Shoshit Dal and was a staunch antagonist and critic of India's caste system. He was nicknamed as the "Lenin of Bihar".
Ramprit Mandal is an Indian politician and a member of the Indian Parliament, representing the Janata Dal (United) party (JDU) in the Lok Sabha, the lower house of Parliament. He was elected to the 17th Lok Sabha from the Jhanjharpur constituency. In 2024, he has been nominated by the JDU to contest again from the same constituency and won.
An election was held in 1969 to elect members to the Bihar Legislative Assembly, the lower house of the legislature of the Indian state of Bihar. After the elections, the Congress emerged as the largest party, and Harihar Singh was sworn in as the Chief Minister of Bihar. Three parties contested in a 'Triple Alliance'; the Loktantrik Congress Dal, the Praja Socialist Party and the Samyukta Socialist Party. The Triple Alliance divided 295 out of 318 constituencies between them, assigning 23 seats to the Communist Party of India.
Umesh Singh Kushwaha is a Former Member of Legislative Assembly in Bihar from Mahnar constituency. He is a member of Janata Dal (United). Kushwaha is the son of Vasudev Singh and hails from Kajri Bujurg village in the Vaishali district of Bihar. He studied at Acharya Narendra Dev College Shahpur Patori, Lalit Narayan Mithila University. Besides being a politician he is also active in business and is a share holder in Lord Budhha food product private ltd. He is the current Bihar state President of Janata Dal (United).
Ram Balak Mahto was the longest serving advocate general of the state of Bihar. He was the chief legal advisor of Bihar's Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. Between 1937 and 2020, only 20 advocate generals were appointed to act as representative of state government in legal matters, and out of them, Mahto alone was appointed six times, becoming the longest-serving advocate general. He served both Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad Yadav led government, and was first appointed to the post in the year 1980.
The Upper Backward Caste is a term used to describe the middle castes in Bihar, whose social and ritual status was not very low and which have traditionally been involved in the agricultural and animal husbandry related activities in the past. They have also been involved in low scale trade to some extent. The Koeri, Kurmi, Yadav, and Bania are categorised as the upper-backwards amongst the Other Backward Class group; while the various other caste groups which constitute the OBC, a group comprising 51% of the population of state of Bihar, have been classified as lower backwards. The upper-backwards, also called upper OBC, represent approximately 20.3% of the population of Bihar. These agricultural caste were the biggest beneficiaries of the land reform drive which was undertaken in the 1950s in the state and they strengthened their economic position by gaining a significant portion of excess land under the ceiling laws, which prohibited the ownership of land above a certain ceiling.
Narendra Kumar Niraj commonly known as Gopal Mandal is an Indian politician from Bihar. He is a member of Janata Dal (United). He is a four time member of the Bihar Legislative Assembly from Gopalpur Assembly constituency in Bhagalpur district. He is considered as a staunch supporter of chief minister Nitish Kumar. He has served as Member of Bihar Legislative Assembly for four terms, winning the Assembly elections consecutively from 2005 to 2020.
In Bihar state, the voters failed to give a clear mandate to any single party to govern...
