Bihar Assembly Elections 2025 | FAQs: How a Chief Minister is elected

The state of Bihar is all set to go to polls in two phases on November 6 and November 11, to elect 243 members of the Bihar legislative assembly. The results will be declared on November 14. While it may be seen as a contest between the National Democratic alliance (NDA) and the Opposition INDIA bloc, the emergence of the Prashant Kishore's Jan Suraaj Party (JSP) has forced political pundits to rework their calculations.

Here's a look at how the CM of a state is elected.

As per Article 164, the Governor of a state appoints the Chief Minister. However, they cannot appoint anyone according to their free will.

After the elections to the State Legislative Assembly, the Governor extends an invitation to the winning party or coalition which has secured the majority votes to form government. The MLAs of this party/coalition would choose the next CM. In the state Assembly elections, members are elected directly through voting.

For a party to secure majority, they have to win 50 per cent plus one seat in the elections.

When parties enter the electoral fray, they either decide their Chief Ministerial candidate in the course of the elections or after the results are out. Once a party has reached a decision to declare their candidate, he/she has to win in at least one of the constituencies that they choose to run from.

If the party wins a majority in the state elections but the candidate loses his/her respective constituency, they can still become the Chief Minister, but they have to win a bypoll election in six months.

The Chief Minister is the primary link between the Governor and the Ministers and heads the state Legislative Assembly.