Patna: Bihar has set a new benchmark in electoral participation, with the second phase of voting for the 2025 assembly elections recording a historic turnout of 68.79%. The figure, which is expected to rise further as data from around 2,000 booths is still being compiled, surpasses all previous voting records in the state. Together, both phases of polling have produced an overall turnout of 66.93% — the highest ever documented in Bihar.
Addressing a press conference on Tuesday evening, Chief Electoral Officer Vinod Singh Gunjyal said that the second phase covered 122 seats across 20 districts, with 45,399 polling stations and nearly 37 million registered voters. This included 19.5 million men and 17.4 million women. Women once again outvoted men, with provisional figures showing 69.04% turnout among female voters compared with 61.56% among male voters.
Katihar led the state with a remarkable turnout of 78.63%, followed by Kishanganj at 78.06% and Purnia at 76.04%. The second phase featured 1,302 candidates, of whom 1,135 were men and 136 women. The Election Commission reported peaceful polling throughout the day, with no booth relocations required.
Gunjyal noted that the overall turnout is 9.6 percentage points higher than the previous assembly election. “Bihar has once again demonstrated its deep democratic commitment,” he said, adding that the final voter percentage is likely to increase slightly once pending data is compiled.
Bihar, often referred to as the “mother of democracy” because of its ancient political heritage in Vaishali, recorded an unprecedented 65.08% turnout in the first phase on 6 November. That record has now been broken by the second phase, which took place on Tuesday.
