Bihar Election 2025: Tejashwi Yadav vs Nitish Kumar—who is the first choice for CM post? Here's what opinion polls say

Bihar Elections 2025: Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav has been officially announced as the Chief Minister face of the Opposition Mahagathbandhan (India bloc) in Bihar. Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP) chief Mukesh Sahani has been declared as the Deputy Chief Minister face of the alliance ahead of the Bihar Elections 2025.

But is Tejashwi Yadav the preferred choice among Bihar voters? Can he give a tough fight to JD(U)’s Nitish Kumar, who has been ruling Bihar since 2015?

Several opinion polls and surveys reveal a clear preference for Tejashwi Yadav, who is also the former Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar. Here’s what they suggest:

C-Voter

In the C-Voter opinion poll released last month, Tejashwi Yadav emerged as the top choice for the Chief Minister’s post in Bihar. A whopping 35.5% of those polled in the survey chose Tejashwi as their “most preferred CM candidate”.

In the second spot was Prashant Kishor, the founder of the Jan Suraaj Party, with 23% of the votes in his favour.

Nitish Kumar, who has been the chief minister of Bihar for the past 10 years, saw only 16% of those surveyed wanting him to retain the CM post.

JVC opinion poll

In September, Nitish Kumar took the lead with 27% of the participants choosing him as the “most popular CM face”. As many as 25% of those polled chose Tejashwi Yadav.

However, in August, Tejashwi Yadav had topped the chart in the JVC opinion poll. As many as 30% of those surveyed had chosen the RJD leader.

Meanwhile, Nitish Kumar was the second-preferred candidate with 23% choosing him, while Prashant Kishor grabbed the third spot with 14% people choosing him in the survey.

Vote Vibe survey

In this survey, too, Tejashwi Yadav was the most preferred candidate for Chief Minister of Bihar. In the poll released in October, 35% chose Tejashwi Yadav, 23.4% chose Nitish Kumar, and 13.8% chose Prashant Kishor.

Prashant Kishor to not contest Bihar Elections

It’s a direct fight between Nitish Kumar and Tejashwi Yadav as Prashant Kishor announced last week that he would not contest the Bihar Elections 2025. He had earlier said his party, Jan Suraaj, will contest all 243 Bihar Assembly seats.

In an exclusive interview with PTI, Prashant Kishor said, “The party has decided that I should not contest the assembly polls. And therefore, the party has announced another candidate from Raghopur, against Tejashwi Yadav.”

“It was a decision we took in the larger interest of the party. If I were to contest, it would have distracted me from the necessary organisational work," Kishor said.

Bihar Election 2025: Nitish Kumar vs Tejashwi Yadav

Bihar Elections will be held in November in two phases. The voting will take place on November 6 and November 11.

The Bihar Election results will be announced on November 14.

The NDA and the Mahagathbandhan are the key alliances fighting the polls, while Prashant Kishor’s Jan Suraaj is a new entrant.

The Mahagathbandhan, led by Rashtriya Janata Dal, includes the Congress, the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) (CPI-ML) led by Deepankar Bhattacharya, the Communist Party of India (CPI), the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPM), and Mukesh Sahani's Vikasheel Insaan Party (VIP).

Meanwhile, the NDA comprises the Bharatiya Janata Party, Janata Dal (United), Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas), Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular), and Rashtriya Lok Morcha.