The opposition has suffered a major setback in the Rajya Sabha elections. Voting for 11 Rajya Sabha seats took place on Monday (16 March 2026). During this period, voting took place on 5 seats in Bihar, 4 in Odisha and two in Haryana. In Bihar and Odisha, opposition parties were not successful in keeping their MLAs united, which benefited NDA. There were 6 candidates in the fray for 5 seats in Bihar. Of these, 5 candidates were from NDA and one candidate was from the opposition alliance Grand Alliance.

NDA won all 5 seats. The winning candidates include Nitish Kumar, Nitin Nabin, Ramnath Thakur, Upendra Kushwaha and Shivesh Ram. 41 votes were required to win the Rajya Sabha elections. NDA has 202 MLAs in the 243-member assembly, due to which it was falling short of 3 votes for the 5th seat. The Grand Alliance had 35 MLAs and needed 6 additional votes to win.

Opposition candidate AD Singh got a shock

Opposition candidate AD Singh was expected to win after the support of 5 AIMIM MLAs and one Bahujan Samaj Party MLA, but at the last moment, 4 opposition MLAs, including 3 Congress and 1 RJD MLA, did not turn up to cast their votes. After there was no decision in the first preference votes, the second preference was counted, in which BJP’s Shivesh Ram won. After this, the Grand Alliance accused BJP of intimidation and horse-trading of MLAs.

Election changed due to cross voting in Odisha

In Odisha, 5 candidates were in the fray for 4 seats and 30 votes were required for victory. Here BJP’s Manmohan Samal and Sujit Kumar won. Santrup Mishra of Biju Janata Dal was also successful in winning. The biggest upset happened when BJP-backed independent candidate Dilip Ray also won. In the 147-member assembly, BJD and Congress had enough votes to make their joint candidate Datteshwar Hota win, but 8 MLAs of BJD and 3 of Congress went against the party line and cross-voted in favor of Dilip Ray. After this, Naveen Patnaik accused BJP of horse-trading and talked about action against rebel MLAs.

BJP and Congress one seat each in Haryana

Voting was held for 2 seats in Haryana, but due to complaints of violation of voting secrecy, the counting of votes was halted for about 5 hours. In the end, Sanjay Bhatia of BJP and Karmaveer Boudh of Congress won one seat each. Independent candidate Satish Nandal had to face defeat. In the counting of votes, Sanjay Bhatia got 31 votes, Karmaveer Boudh got 28 votes and Satish Nandal got 27 votes. Congress candidate Karmaveer Boudh won by one vote.

Win unopposed on 26 seats

The Election Commission of India had last month announced elections for 37 Rajya Sabha seats from 10 states. Of these, voting was not held on 26 seats in 7 states because there was only one candidate and he was elected unopposed. These include leaders like Sharad Pawar, Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Ramdas Athawale and Tiruchi Shiva.

Bihar Election Result 2025: In the 2025 Bihar Assembly election results, NDA achieved a strong victory by crossing the 200 seats mark. On the other hand, the presence of the Grand Alliance was limited to only 35 seats. Meanwhile, an important question is being raised in political discussions that how many seats any party has to win to get the post of leader of the opposition. Let us know.

10% rule

The post of Leader of Opposition does not automatically go to the largest opposition party. Actually it is governed by a rule. To officially get this constitutional post, it is necessary for any party to get at least 10% of the total strength of the House. This rule applies only to a single party and not to any alliance. If we talk about Bihar’s 243-member assembly, then a party will have to win at least 25 seats. If no party meets this threshold, the House functions without an officially recognized Leader of the Opposition.

Why is this rule necessary

This 10% rule is necessary because the post of Leader of Opposition holds considerable political importance. This prevents very small parties from claiming positions designed to balance the ruling government. In fact, a recognized opposition leader has a lot of institutional importance. This rule ensures that this responsibility rests with the party that has the most important mandate.

How does this rule apply in all legislatures?

If we talk about Lok Sabha, any party should have at least 55 seats to get the status of Leader of Opposition. On the other hand, based on the total number of seats in Rajya Sabha, the required number is approximately 25 seats.

role of leader of opposition

Being a leader of opposition is a big responsibility. It strengthens democratic accountability. The Leader of the Opposition participates in major selection committees for top national institutions. These include the appointment of Director of Central Bureau of Investigation, Chief of Central Vigilance Commission, Chairman of National Human Rights Commission and Lokpal.

Also read: Can the Election Commission cancel the legislature even after winning the election, what is the rule?

While NDA registered a big victory in the results of Bihar Assembly Elections 2025, another worrying picture emerged. This time the number of Muslim MLAs in the House has come down to only 10, which is the lowest in the last 35 years. Despite the Muslim population in the state being around 17.7%, their political representation is very low which clearly shows the inequality of election strategies and ticket distribution.

In this election, both the Grand Alliance and the NDA expressed less confidence in Muslim faces. There were many seats where Muslim voters traditionally play a decisive role, but political parties fielded non-Muslim candidates in those areas too. AIMIM was not included in the grand alliance, after which the party decided to contest the elections alone. Due to all these reasons, the representation of the Muslim community was significantly reduced and the number of seats came down to a record level.

AIMIM again showed strength in Seemanchal

Asaduddin Owaisi’s party AIMIM maintained its influence in the politics of Seemanchal this time also. The party fielded candidates on 25 seats and won 5 of them. These victories were recorded in seats like Amour, Kochadhaman, Jokihat, Bahadurganj and Bayasi, where Muslim population is high and AIMIM had performed strongly in the last elections also. This time the influence of the party was more clearly visible in the four districts of Seemanchal, Araria, Purnia, Katihar and Kishanganj.

Status of JDU Muslim candidates

JDU has fielded four Muslim candidates in the 2025 elections. Among these, Mohammad Zama Khan came out ahead from Chainpur. Chainpur is not a Muslim dominated area, hence BJP and JDU launched a joint campaign to woo Hindu voters on this seat. In 2020, JDU had given tickets to 11 Muslim faces, but they did not get any success in that election. This time, after reducing the number of candidates, the party was successful in getting one seat.

The only Muslim face of LJP (RV)

Chirag Paswan’s party gave ticket to Mohammad Kalimuddin from Bahadurganj. He survived the competition but remained in third place. AIMIM’s Tausif Alam registered a comfortable victory on this seat, while Congress stood second.

RJD got two Muslim seats

Rashtriya Janata Dal gave limited tickets to Muslim candidates, but the party won on the two seats where it got the opportunity. Asif Ahmed was victorious from Bisfi, while in Raghunathpur, Shahabuddin’s son Osama Saheb won and made the family’s political comeback after 21 years. This time RJD adopted a new balance in ticket distribution, in which an attempt was seen to create a fresh coordination between Yadav, Muslim, EBC, Dalit and upper caste communities.

Mixed situation of Congress in Seemanchal

Congress maintained its presence in Seemanchal like in 2020. Mohammad Kamrul Hoda won from Kishanganj and Abidur Rehman won from Araria. However, a major upset was seen when Congress Legislature Party leader Shakeel Ahmed Khan lost to JDU candidate Dulal Chandra Goswami in Nathnagar.

Lowest number of Muslim MLAs since 1990

If we look at the previous figures of Muslim representation in Bihar, the result of 2025 shows a big decline. In the year 2010, 19 Muslim MLAs won. In 2015 the number increased to 24. Whereas in 2020 again there will be 19 MLAs and in 2025 it will come down to only 10. That is, about 4.1% of the House, while the population is about 17.7%.

Also read: Those factors of Bihar, which gave the victory to NDA and pushed the Grand Alliance into the quagmire of defeat?

Samajwadi Party National President Akhilesh Yadav raised questions on the SIR process for NDA’s lead in Bihar election trends, on which Uttar Pradesh Deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya has retaliated. Deputy CM Keshav Maurya claimed that like Bihar, NDA will win in Uttar Pradesh also in 2027.

Keshav Prasad Maurya expressed his happiness over the landslide victory in Bihar elections and said that after Magadha, now only NDA will hoist the flag of victory in Awadh region also. Deputy CM wrote on X- ‘Magadh won, Awadh will also win. Will repeat 2017 in 2027!

Deputy CM said- Jungle Raj, fanaticism, familyism, all these have been defeated in Bihar and good governance, development and poor welfare have won. For this, we express our heartfelt gratitude to every single person of Bihar and also congratulate the workers there, they have worked very hard. Akhilesh Yadav will now face an even worse defeat in UP.

Earlier, Samajwadi Party President Akhilesh Yadav had raised questions about the game of SIR behind NDA’s victory in Bihar. He said that election conspiracies are being hatched in the name of SIR in different states. This will be prevented from happening in Uttar Pradesh and for this, SP will make PDA guards who will keep an eye on the entire process.

Akhilesh Yadav had raised questions on SIR

Akhilesh Yadav wrote on X- ‘The game that SIR has done in Bihar is like P. This will no longer be possible in Bengal, Tamil Nadu, UP and other places because this election conspiracy has now been exposed. Now we will not let them play this game in future. Like CCTV, our ‘PPTV’ meaning ‘PDA Sentinel’ will remain alert and foil the plans of BJP. BJP is not a party, it is deceit.

Let us tell you that NDA is going to form government once again in Bihar. According to the figures so far, NDA is leading on 200 seats while the Grand Alliance seems to be limited to only 37 seats. Others may get 6 seats. Due to the kind of results that are coming, there is a tsunami of NDA in Bihar, in front of which the Grand Alliance has collapsed.

NDA and not anyone else is responsible for the defeat in Bihar? What did SP Chief Akhilesh Yadav say?