1990 Bihar Legislative Assembly election

1990 Bihar Legislative Assembly election

← 1985 27 February 1990 1995 →
324 seats to the Bihar Legislative Assembly seats 163 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	62.04%
Majority party Minority party Third party   Leader Lalu Prasad Yadav Jagannath Mishra Inder Singh Namdhari Party JD INC BJP Leader since 1990 1989 1988 Leader's seat MLC Jhanjharpur Did not contest Last election New 196 seats, 39.30% 16 seats, 7.54% Seats won 122 71 39 Seat change New 125 23 Popular vote 8,212,666 7,946,635 3,721,392 Percentage 25.61% 24.78% 11.61% Swing New 14.52% 4.07%
CM before election Jagannath Mishra INC Elected CM Lalu Prasad Yadav JD

The 10th Bihar Legislative Assembly elections were held in February 1990, to elect representatives for the Bihar Legislative Assembly. It resulted in a decisive victory for the Janta Dal, riding on the pan-India victory of 1989, during V. P. Singh's wave. Political manoeuvres ensured parliamentarian Lalu Prasad Yadav's victory in the chief minister-ship battle, against seasoned Bihar leader Ram Sundar Das, who was close to Janta party stalwarts like S.N. Sinha and Chandrashekhar.^[1][2]

Party		Seats			Vote
		Contested	Won	+/-	%	+/-
	Janata Dal (JD)	276	122	new	25.61%	new
	Indian National Congress (INC)	323	71	125	24.78%	14.52%
	Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)	237	39	23	11.61%	4.07%
	Communist Party of India (CPI)	109	23	11	6.59%	2.27%
	Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM)	82	19	10	3.14%	1.32%
	Indian People's Front (IPF)	82	7	new	2.77%	new
	Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPM)	31	6	5	1.33%	0.28%
	Janata Party (JP)	158	3	10	1.54%	5.67%
	Marxist Co-ordination Committee (MCC)	11	2	new	0.22%	new
	Jharkhand Party (JHP)	28	1	new	0.42%	new
	Socialist Party (SOP)	47	1	new	0.34%	new
	Independents	4320	30	1	18.42%	0.54%
	Total		324

Source:.^[3]

The Janata dal gained majority in the house by the outside support of CPI,CPI(M),JMM and a few independents. This was followed by an internal election within the Janata dal for chief minister post. The fight was between Ram sundar Das (supported by PM VP Singh) and Lalu Yadav (supported by Deputy PM Devi Lal). Sensing a strong opponent, Lalu requested Chandra Shekhar to ask Ragunath Jha to contest, which tilted the election in his favour. Nitish Kumar and Sharad Yadav rallied backward caste MLAs towards Yadav. In the election, Yadav won narrowly over Das by a vote of 59 to 56. Jha won 12, mostly upper caste MLAs.^[4][5]