In the 2025 Bihar election, two headline-grabbing outcomes have captured the spotlight: a sweeping victory for the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and a record voter turnout unseen in more than seventy years. Yet, the most defining aspect of this election may well be who turned out to vote and in what numbers.What sets the 2025 election apart is not just the NDA’s big win, but the historic rise in turnout among Bihar’s women voters.For the first time in Bihar’s history, women not only outnumbered men at the polling booths but also shattered turnout records. While the overall turnout stood at 66.91 per cent, an extraordinary 71.6 per cent of women cast their votes, nearly nine percentage points higher than the 62.8 per cent turnout among men. In sheer numbers, women outvoted men, marking a historic first for the state and signaling a potential to transform Bihar’s political landscape.
The surge that came from women votersWomen voters took the lead in what the Election Commission of India described as Bihar’s highest-ever voter turnout, with 71.6 per cent of female electors casting their ballots compared to 62.8 per cent of men. In the first phase of voting, 69.04 per cent of women turned out to vote, well above the 61.56 per cent male turnout. The trend strengthened in the second phase, when 74.03 per cent of women voters exercised their franchise, again surpassing the 64.1 per cent turnout among men. Overall, Bihar recorded a 66.91 per cent voter turnout — the highest since the state’s first elections in 1951 — with women driving the surge in participation.What worked for NDAWomen were the biggest winners of the Bihar elections. Their overwhelming participation tilted the mandate toward the NDA, boosted by welfare schemes for women. One of the most talked-about schemes before the election was the Rs 10,000 assistance for women wanting to start small enterprises.The contrast between the two alliances was simple: the NDA had already delivered the benefit, while the Mahagathbandhan’s offer remained a campaign promise. For many women, that difference, money already in the bank versus a promise of future help, mattered.Support built on more than a single benefitBut the support for Nitish Kumar among women wasn’t built in a single election cycle. It rests on a much longer foundation. Over nearly two decades in power, Nitish’s government has consistently introduced policies aimed at women — from panchayati raj reservations to the Jeevika self-help group movement. These measures expanded women’s economic roles and strengthened their presence in local governance.That background helped the NDA’s 2025 pitch land more strongly. The women employment scheme targeting 22 lakh women, the plan to create one crore ‘Lakhpati Didis’, and the Mission Crorepati push for women-led enterprises all fed into a familiar narrative of economic empowerment. Unlike the opposition’s focus on direct cash transfers, the NDA leaned on a mix of skills, credit access and SHG-driven growth, positioning women as central to Bihar’s development story.Women voters made their weight feltThe 2025 Bihar election offers one of the clearest instances of women emerging as a defining voting group in the state. With their turnout nearly nine percentage points higher than that of men, women clearly influenced the direction of the mandate.As the dust settles on the 2025 election, one thing is certain: Bihar’s women are no longer silent spectators. They are active, influential, and, for the first time, decisive in shaping the state’s political destiny. The scale of their participation has not only shifted the composition of the electorate but also the direction of Bihar’s future. For the NDA, this historic mandate is as much a victory for its policies as it is for the women who turned out in record numbers to support them. And for Bihar, it marks the dawn of a new era, one where women’s voices are not just heard, but heeded.
