The Legislative Assembly election was held over five-phases in Bihar through October–November 2015 before the end of the tenure of the prior Legislative Assembly of Bihar on 29 November 2015.
In April 2015, the Janata Parivar group (a group of six parties – Samajwadi Party, Janata Dal (United), Rashtriya Janata Dal, Janata Dal (Secular), Indian National Lok Dal and Samajwadi Janata Party (Rashtriya)) announced their intention to fight the election, with Nitish Kumar as their Chief Ministerial candidate. The Janta Parivar was joined by the Indian National Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party. This coalition was restructured as Mahagatabandhan when the Samajwadi Party, Janata Dal (Secular), Indian National Lok Dal and Samajwadi Janata Party (Rashtriya) departed from the Janata Parivar.
The Bharatiya Janata Party led NDA fought the election alongside the Lok Janshakti Party, the Rashtriya Lok Samata Party and Hindustani Awam Morcha.
Six left parties fought jointly, independently from both of the two main blocs.
This election saw the highest voter turnout in Bihar assembly polls since 2000, with a 56.8% voter turnout in this election. The RJD emerged as a single largest party with 81 seats, followed by JD (U) with 70 seats and BJP with 53 seats. In terms of vote share, BJP came first with 24.4%, followed by RJD with 18.4% and JD (U) with 16.8% and Congress got 6.7%.
Background
Electoral process changes
Election Commission of India announced that around 1,000 Voter-verified paper audit trail (VVPAT) machines will be used along with EVM in 36 out of the 243 assembly seats in Bihar elections, spread over 38 districts. ECIL manufactured VVPATs will be used in 10 assembly constituencies, while BEL manufactured VVPAT will be used in 26 assembly constituencies. The election information was webcast for the first time and voters can locate their polling booth on phones via an app. About 1.5 crore voters would be informed about the voting dates via SMS.
Election Commission used three new software products – Suvidha, Samadhan and Sugam – to facilitate campaigning, public grievance redressal and vehicle management in Bihar. Electoral Roll Management Software helped in addition/deletion/upgradation of rolls. Android based app 'Matdan' helped the commission with poll-day monitoring in Bihar. Election Commission launched a special drive, Systematic Voters' Education And Electoral Participation (SVEEP) for voter awareness and higher voter turn out in Bihar elections. Bihar would be the first state to have photo electoral rolls, with photographs of candidates on EVMs.
Eleven NRI voters registered in the electoral rolls for the first time in Bihar electoral history. They were contacted by election officials through their family members. It was the first time that NRIs cast their votes semi-electronically from foreign countries. The e-postal ballot system and the existing proxy-voting facility is extended for NRI voters from their place of residence abroad. But this facility is not available to migrant voters within India.
A cross will be NOTA symbol to be used in this and subsequent elections. The Election Commission introduced the specific symbol for NOTA, a ballot paper with a black cross across it, on 18 September. The symbol is designed by the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad.
On 31 July, the ECI published the final voters' list for the election, which has an overall population of 10,38,04,637, in accordance with the 2011 Census of India.
Security
The security used Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) drones, called Netras (eyes) for the election. The Election Commission of India decided that Bihar Police personnel would not be deployed at any of the 62,779 polling stations. They would be manned by members of the Central Armed Police Forces.
Bihar Legislative Council election
In July 2015, BJP-led NDA won 13 seats (including 1 independent backed by BJP) out of 24 seats of Bihar Legislative Council election. JDU and RJD combine won 10 seats only, while 1 seat was won by an independent candidate.
Central government actions
On 19 August, the central government notified 21 Bihar districts, including the capital Patna, as backward areas and unveiled tax rebates for them. On 25 August, the central government released the religious data of the 2011 census. Hindus constituted 82.7% (8.6 crore people) in Bihar, while Muslims constituted 16.9% (1.7 crore peoples).
In July 2015, Jitan Ram Manjhi was accorded "Z"-plus security cover by the Union Home Ministry, while Pappu Yadav was accorded "Y" category security by government of India.