2024 Indian general election in Bihar

The 2024 Indian general election was held in Bihar in all 7 phases from 19 April to 1 June to elect 40 members of the 18th Lok Sabha, with the results declared on 4 June.

Bihar, along with Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, were the only states where the 2024 Indian general election was held in all 7 phases.

Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance
The Indian National Congress began its Bihar section of the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra from Kishanganj on 28 January 2024. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi criticised chief minister Nitish Kumar for rejoining the NDA and said that the Mahagathbandhan did not need him and that it would keep fighting for social justice. On 15 February, Gandhi resumed his yatra from Bihar's Aurangabad, where he promised a financial survey to assess the ground reality if his alliance comes to power. The yatra resumed from Sasaram the next day, where Rashtriya Janata Dal chairperson and former state deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav joined the yatra, touring the state with Gandhi in a jeep.

The Rashtriya Janata Dal began its campaign with its Jan Vishwas Yatra ("People's Trust Yatra") on 20 February 2024. RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav launched the yatra from Muzaffarpur in Bihar. The yatra will last till 1 March 2024 and will have covered 33 districts. In Siwan on 23 February, Yadav termed the BJP "a dustbin" which takes in other parties that have become "garbage". The Rashtriya Janata Dal also worked to expand its social base while holding its core Muslim-Yadav support base firmly. The majority of the candidates of Rashtriya Janata Dal on all 23 seats it contested were from Other Backward Class and Extremely Backward Castes. The party fielded 8 Yadav candidates, while the Koeri and Kurmis also got a fair share. It fielded three Koeris, Alok Kumar Mehta from Ujiarpur, Shravan Kushwaha from Nawada and Abhay Kushwaha from Aurangabad constituency. RJD also fielded six women candidates– Ritu Jaiswal (Sheohar), Anita Devi Mahto (Munger), Bima Bharati (Purnea), Archana Ravidas (Jamui), Misa Bharti (Pataliputra) and Rohini Acharya from Saran.

RJD also faced opposition from its own party members in constituencies like Nawada, where RJD's sitting legislators Vibha Devi and Prakash Veer were spotted campaigning for independent candidate Vinod Yadav, brother of former RJD legislator, Rajballabh Yadav instead of party's declared candidate Shravan Kushwaha. In overall ticket distribution of the NDA and INDIA bloc, 16 Yadav candidates were made candidates out of 80 candidates from both sides. The Koeris with 11 candidates were the second largest caste.

Events and outcomes
During the election, the Karakat Lok Sabha constituency in the Rohtas district of Bihar drew nationwide attention, when Bhojpuri singer and actor Pawan Singh declared that he will contest the Lok Sabha election from there. Earlier, Singh was made a candidate of Bharatiya Janata Party from Asansol Lok Sabha constituency against Shatrughan Sinha, but Singh refused to contest from there. Unable to secure the candidature of National Democratic Alliance from Arrah Lok Sabha constituency, he made the contest in the Karakat triangular. It was speculated that he will cut the major chunk of NDA votes of Rajput caste, the community to which he belonged. In the aftermath of voting process, Singh was able to get over two lakh votes, pushing NDA candidate Upendra Kushwaha to the third spot. He was, however, defeated by Raja Ram Singh Kushwaha of Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation by a margin of over one lakh votes. The division in votes of NDA due to Singh led to the victory of CPIML candidate.

However, the defeat of former union minister Upendra Kushwaha, who was considered as the tallest leader of the Koeri caste in Bihar, sent shockwaves across the state, specially in the Magadh and Shahabad belt. There witnessed a palpable anger amongst the member of Koeri caste on Pawan Singh contesting from the constituency considered as the stronghold of the community against Upendra Kushwaha. As a consequence, the Koeris across the Shahabad voted again the Rajput candidates and the Bharatiya Janata Party as the Rashtriya Janata Dal and its alliance partners like CPIML were successful in conveying the message that Pawan Singh was sent by Bharatiya Janata Party to spoil the votes of Upendra Kushwaha. This led to defeat of veteran Rajput leaders R. K. Singh and Sushil Kumar Singh in the nearby Arrah and Aurangabad constituency. Besides this, NDA also lost Buxar and Sasaram leading to wiping out of BJP from the whole Shahabad region.

Earlier, BJP had raised Samrat Chaudhary to the post of party's Bihar unit president in a bid to bring Kushwahas within the fold of BJP. However, discontent was seen amongst the Kushwahas on the ground level as Chaudary was not able to field any Kushwaha candidate on the symbol of BJP in 2024 polls. Although, only two out of seven Kushwaha candidates were able to win from the INDIA alliance, the margin of victory of the NDA candidates was drastically reduced on evey seat, where there was a Kushwaha candidate from the side of INDIA bloc. This showed major chunk of Kushwaha voters supporting and voting for INDIA as against NDA.