# 2004 Indian general election in Bihar

In Bihar the RJD leader Laloo Prasad Yadav, husband of the Bihar Chief Minister Rabri Devi, was able to assemble a broad coalition of anti-NDA parties. It included RJD, Congress, Lok Janshakti, NCP and CPI(M). Congress was sceptical of the coalition, since the party was only allotted four seats by Laloo. The other coalition partners argued that four seats actually reflected the decreasing strength of Congress in the state. Lok Janshakti, a party with strong support amongst Dalit communities, were allotted eight seats. NCP and CPI(M) were allotted one seat each. RJD itself contested 26 seats.
Two large non-NDA parties in the state, CPI and CPI(ML) Liberation, did not join the Laloo-led front but contested individually. CPI(ML)L contested 21 seats and CPI six.
The NDA front consisted of BJP and JD(U). The alliance was threatened at several points, over disagreements on seat-sharing formulas. In the end JD(U) contested 24 seats and BJP 16.
BSP contested all 40 seats and SP 32 on their own, unsuccessfully. Lok Janshakti held sway over Dalit votes and RJD over Yadav votes, thus making it impossible for the Uttar Pradesh-based caste parties to make a breakthrough in the state.
The result was an overwhelming victory for the Laloo-led coalition. It won 29 seats. The rest went to the BJP-JD(U) combine.
Voting in the state was confronted with many irregularities, and repolling was ordered in four constituencies.

## Voting and results
### Results by Party

| Alliance/Party | Alliance/Party | Alliance/Party | Alliance/Party | Seats | Seats | Seats | Popular Vote | Popular Vote | Popular Vote |
| Alliance/Party | Alliance/Party | Alliance/Party | Alliance/Party | Contested | Won | +/- | Votes | % | +/- |
| | UPA | | Rashtriya Janata Dal | 26 | 22 | 16 | 89,94,821 | 30.67 | 2.28 |
| | UPA | | Lok Janshakti Party | 8 | 4 | 4 | 24,02,603 | 8.19 | New |
| | UPA | | Indian National Congress | 4 | 3 | 1 | 13,15,935 | 4.49 | 4.32 |
| | UPA | | Communist Party of India (Marxist) | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2,27,298 | 0.77 | 0.21 |
| | UPA | | Nationalist Congress Party | 1 | 0 | | 2,86,357 | 0.98 | 0.36 |
| | NDA | | Janata Dal (United) | 24 | 6 | 12 | 65,58,538 | 22.36 | 1.59 |
| | NDA | | Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) | 16 | 5 | 7 | 42,72,195 | 14.57 | 8.44 |
Note: In 1999, before Jharkhand was created as a separate state, Bihar had 54 constituencies.

### Results by constituency

| Parliamentary Constituency | Parliamentary Constituency | Parliamentary Constituency | Turnout | Winner | Winner | Winner | Winner | Winner | Runner Up | Runner Up | Runner Up | Runner Up | Runner Up | Margin | Margin |
| No. | Name | Type | Turnout | Candidate | Party | Party | Votes | Vote% | Candidate | Party | Party | Votes | Vote% | Votes | % |
| 1 | Bagaha | SC | 49.2 | Kailash Baitha | | JDU | 2,37,989 | | Hiralal Ram | | LJP | 1,72,614 | | 65,375 | 11.45 |
| 2 | Bettiah | GEN | 44.59 | Raghunath Jha | | RJD | 2,11,590 | | Madan Prasad Jaiswal | | BJP | 1,86,919 | | 24,671 | 4.33 |
| 3 | Motihari | GEN | 55.59 | Akhilesh Prasad Singh | | RJD | 3,48,596 | | Radha Mohan Singh | | BJP | 2,51,572 | | 97,024 | 14.29 |
| 4 | Gopalganj | GEN | 56.41 | Sadhu Yadav | | RJD | 3,36,016 | | Prabhu Dayal Singh | | JDU | 1,86,919 | | 1,92,919 | 27.78 |
| 5 | Siwan | GEN | 60.46 | Shahabuddin | | RJD | 3,17,511 | | Om Prakash Yadav | | JDU | 2,13,933 | | 1,03,578 | 16.25 |
| 6 | Maharajganj | GEN | 59.61 | Prabhunath Singh | | JDU | 2,83,506 | | Jitendra Swami | | RJD | 2,37,041 | | 46,465 | 6.99 |
| 7 | Chapra | GEN | 38.3 | Lalu Prasad Yadav | | RJD | 2,28,882 | | Rajiv Pratap Rudy | | BJP | 1,68,459 | | 60,423 | 13.54 |
| 8 | Hajipur | SC | 64.0 | Ram Vilas Paswan | | LJP | 4,77,495 | | Chhedi Paswan | | JDU | 2,39,694 | | 2,37,801 | 30.74 |
| 9 | Vaishali | GEN | 62.54 | Raghuvansh Prasad Singh | | RJD | 3,61,503 | | Vijay Kumar Shukla | | Independent | 2,55,568 | | 1,05,935 | 14.15 |
| 10 | Muzaffarpur | GEN | 63.37 | George Fernandes | | JDU | 3,70,127 | | Bhagwan Lal Sahani | | RJD | 3,60,127 | | 9,693 | 1.24 |
| 11 | Sitamarhi | GEN | 54.61 | Sitaram Yadav | | RJD | 3,26,165 | | Nawal Kishore Rai | | JDU | 2,28,160 | | 98,005 | 14.19 |
| 12 | Sheohar | GEN | 54.87 | Sitaram Singh | | RJD | 3,03,243 | | Md Anwarul Haque | | BJP | 2,29,360 | | 73,883 | 11.09 |
| 13 | Madhubani | GEN | 55.28 | Shakeel Ahmad | | INC | 3,28,182 | | Hukum Deo Narayan Yadav | | BJP | 2,41,103 | | 87,079 | 12.53 |
| 14 | Jhanjharpur | GEN | 60.51 | Devendra Prasad Yadav | | RJD | 3,23,400 | | Jagannath Mishra | | JDU | 3,10,565 | | 12,835 | 1.82 |
| 15 | Darbhanga | GEN | 63.55 | Ali Ashraf Fatmi | | RJD | 4,27,672 | | Kirti Azad | | BJP | 2,84,209 | | 1,43,463 | 12.53 |
| 16 | Rosera | SC | 57.3 | Ram Chandra Paswan | | LJP | 3,94,240 | | Dashai Chaudhary | | JDU | 2,55,829 | | 1,38,411 | 19.39 |
| 17 | Samastipur | GEN | 60.31 | Alok Kumar Mehta | | RJD | 4,37,457 | | Ram Chandra Singh | | JDU | 3,10,674 | | 1,26,783 | 14.66 |
| 18 | Barh | GEN | 69.53 | Vijay Krishna | | RJD | 4,26,856 | | Nitish Kumar | | JDU | 3,89,168 | | 37,688 | 4.36 |
| 19 | Balia | GEN | 53.52 | Surajbhan Singh | | LJP | 2,33,869 | | Shatrughna Prasad Singh | | CPI | 3,73,148 | | 76,227 | 12.05 |
| 20 | Saharsa | GEN | 57.33 | Ranjeet Ranjan | | LJP | 3,50,426 | | Dinesh Chandra Yadav | | JDU | 3,19,639 | | 30,787 | 4.17 |
| 21 | Madhepura | GEN | 58.58 | Lalu Prasad Yadav | | RJD | 3,44,301 | | Sharad Yadav | | JDU | 2,74,314 | | 69,987 | 10.06 |
| 22 | Araria | SC | 55.06 | Sukdeo Paswan | | BJP | 2,16,677 | | Ramjidas Rishidev | | SP | 1,88,933 | | 27,744 | 4.25 |
| 23 | Kishanganj | GEN | 63.62 | Taslimuddin | | RJD | 4,20,331 | | Syed Shahnawaz Hussain | | BJP | 2,59,834 | | 1,60,497 | 19.73 |
| 24 | Purnia | GEN | 60.11 | Uday Singh | | BJP | 2,44,426 | | Pappu Yadav | | LJP | 2,31,543 | | 12,883 | 1.82 |
| 25 | Katihar | GEN | 60.83 | Nikhil Kumar Choudhary | | BJP | 2,88,922 | | Tariq Anwar | | NCP | 2,86,357 | | 2,565 | 0.36 |
| 26 | Banka | GEN | 58.82 | Giridhari Yadav | | RJD | 3,39,880 | | Digvijay Singh | | JDU | 3,35,211 | | 4,669 | 0.65 |
| 27 | Bhagalpur | GEN | 54.56 | Sushil Modi | | BJP | 3,45,151 | | Subodh Roy | | CPI(M) | 2,27,298 | | 1,17,853 | 15.56 |
| 28 | Khagaria | GEN | 56.48 | Rabindra Kumar Rana | | RJD | 3,22,440 | | Renu Kumari | | JDU | 2,55,317 | | 67,123 | 9.93 |
| 29 | Munger | GEN | 63.98 | Jay Prakash Narayan Yadav | | RJD | 4,53,286 | | Monazir Hassan | | JDU | 3,37,359 | | 1,15,927 | 13.83 |
| 30 | Begusarai | GEN | 52.98 | Lalan Singh | | JDU | 3,01,562 | | Krishna Sahi | | INC | 2,81,071 | | 20,491 | 3.02 |
| 31 | Nalanda | GEN | 68.23 | Nitish Kumar | | JDU | 4,71,310 | | Pushpanjay Kumar | | LJP | 3,68,914 | | 1,02,396 | 11.44 |
| 32 | Patna | GEN | 51.78 | Ram Kripal Yadav | | RJD | 4,33,853 | | C. P. Thakur | | BJP | 3,95,291 | | 38,562 | 4.28 |
| 33 | Arrah | GEN | 57.9 | Kanti Singh | | RJD | 2,99,422 | | Ram Naresh Ram | | CPI(ML)L | 1,49,679 | | 1,49,743 | 19.02 |
| 34 | Buxar | GEN | 53.12 | Lalmuni Chaubey | | BJP | 2,05,980 | | Dadan Singh Yadav | | Independent | 1,51,114 | | 54,866 | 8.45 |
| 35 | Sasaram | SC | 53.98 | Meira Kumar | | INC | 4,16,673 | | Muni Lall | | BJP | 1,58,411 | | 2,58,262 | 37.04 |
| 36 | Bikramganj | GEN | 56.51 | Ajit Kumar Singh | | JDU | 3,05,392 | | Ram Prasad Singh | | RJD | 2,46,591 | | 58,801 | 8.01 |
| 37 | Aurangabad | GEN | 54.73 | Nikhil Kumar | | INC | 2,90,009 | | Sushil Kumar Singh | | JDU | 2,82,549 | | 7,460 | 0.97 |
| 38 | Jahanabad | GEN | 69.29 | Ganesh Yadav | | RJD | 4,00,063 | | Arun Kumar | | JDU | 3,53,625 | | 46,438 | 5.38 |
| 39 | Nawada | SC | 67.09 | Virchandra Paswan | | RJD | 4,89,992 | | Sanjay Paswan | | BJP | 4,33,986 | | 56,006 | 5.54 |
| 40 | Gaya | SC | 61.51 | Rajesh Manjhi | | RJD | 4,64,829 | | Balbir Chand | | BJP | 3,61,895 | | 1,02,934 | 11.65 |