Indian general election in Bihar, 2009

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40 seats
Turnout	44.47%
First party Second party Third party   Leader Nitish Kumar Radha Mohan Singh Lalu Prasad Yadav Party JD(U) BJP RJD Alliance NDA NDA Fourth Front Leader's seat Did not contest Purvi Champaran (won) Saran (won), Pataliputra (lost) Last election 6 5 22 Seats won 20 12 4 Seat change 14 7 18 Percentage 24.04% 13.93% 19.30% Swing 1.68% 0.64% 11.37%   Fourth party Fifth party   Leader Ram Vilas Paswan Party INC LJP Alliance United Progressive Alliance (India) Leader's seat Hajipur (lost) Last election 4 Seats won 0 Seat change 4
Bihar
Prime Minister before election Manmohan Singh INC Prime Minister after election Manmohan Singh INC

The 2009 Indian general election in Bihar were held for 40 seats with the state going to polls in the first four phases of the general elections. The major contenders in the state were the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), Indian National Congress and the Fourth Front. NDA consisted of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Janata Dal (United) whereas the fourth front consisted of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) and the Samajwadi Party (SP).

The results indicated the complete reversal of the last election, where the NDA won this state in a landslide securing 32 out of 40 seats. The victory is mostly credited to the work of Nitish Kumar and JD(U), and this is the only state where the NDA has had the most success since, they were defeated by Congress and allies, in all the other states, leading to their heavy losses for the NDA in the election.

After disagreement with the UPA on seat sharing, Lalu Prasad Yadav of the Rashtriya Janata Dal joined hands with Lok Janshakti Party and Ram Vilas Paswan, and joined the Fourth Front, with Samajwadi Party. This move proved to be disastrous, since LJP couldn't win a single seat, and RJD were reduced to 4 seats in the Lok Sabha. After the election Laloo Prasad Yadav, admitted that it was a mistake to leave the UPA, and gave unconditional support to Manmohan Singh and the newly formed UPA government.

National Democratic Alliance
Party		Flag	Symbol	Leader	Seats
	Janata Dal (United)			Nitish Kumar	25
	Bharatiya Janata Party			Radha Mohan Singh	15
Total					40

Party		Flag	Symbol	Leader	Seats contested
	Rashtriya Janata Dal			Lalu Prasad Yadav	28
	Lok Janshakti Party			Ram Vilas Paswan	12

Party		Flag	Symbol	Leader	Seats contested
	Indian National Congress			Anil Kumar Sharma	37
	Nationalist Congress Party			Tariq Anwar	1 + 1 [a]
	Independent				1
Total					39 + 1 [b]

Source: Election Commission of India^[1]

Map displaying constituencies won by Alliances

Alliance/ Party				Popular vote			Seats
				Votes	%	±pp	Contested	Won	+/−
	NDA		JD(U)	58,25,874	24.04		25	20	14
			BJP	33,76,109	13.93		15	12	7
		Total		92,01,983	37.97		40	32	21
	FFR		RJD	46,78,880	19.31		28	4	18
			LJP	15,86,404	6.54		12	0	4
		Total		62,65,284	25.85		40	4	22
	INC			24,87,008	10.26		37	2	1
	BSP			10,71,808	4.42		39	0
	CPI(M-L)L			4,59,279	1.90		20	0
	CPI			3,39,964	1.40		7	0
	NCP			2,94,469	1.22		2	0
	CPI(M)			1,24,007	0.51		5	0
	JMM			1,08,841	0.45		4	0
	Others			9,42,733	3.89		175	0
	IND			29,37,221	12.12		304	2
Total				2,42,32,597	100%	–	672	40	–

Notes:

• FFR stands for Fourth Front
• Since the Fourth front did not exist in 2004, the results in 2004 represents seats won by RJD and LJP in Fourth Front.

• The Banka Lok Sabha bypoll was held because the sitting MP Digvijay Singh died following a brain haemorrhage at a London hospital on 20 June 2010, which caused the seat to fall vacant.

• The Maharajganj Lok Sabha bypoll was held because the sitting MP Umashankar Singh died on 26 April 2013, resulting in the seat falling vacant.