As the NDA government led by Nitish Kumar took oath in Patna on Thursday — the 10th time for Kumar — the scale of the victory is illustrated by the strike rates of both the JD(U) and the BJP in the election.

Both parties contested 101 seats each out of 243, and won 89 and 85 constituencies, respectively. This put their strike rates, or the percentage share of seats won out of the total contested, at 88.1% and 84.2%. While the JD(U)’s strike rate is the party’s highest ever in Bihar, the BJP fell just short of the 89.2% in 2010, when it won 92 of the 102 seats contested. That is the highest in any Bihar election since 1951 among parties that contested at least 10 seats in an election, with the BJP’s 2025 strike rate ranking second, followed by the JD(U)’s this year at third. In 2010, the J

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