NEW DELHI: It has been a yr bookended by elections. It began with the extreme campaigning for the Delhi meeting elections and ended with the stunning outcomes of Bihar. In between, there have been parliamentary showdowns, infights and figures rising and fading away from the centre stage.In 2025, whereas a number of heavyweights did not stay as much as expectations, many asserted their place again in, proving themselves the darkish horses of Indian politics.The yr was additionally a reminder that energy isn’t static — and that survival typically issues as a lot as victory.
So, who had been the winners and losers in politics in 2025? Here is a glance.
Winners
Nitish KumarForward of the Bihar meeting elections, the opposition was in a rush to write down the political obituary of chief minister Nitish Kumar. All through the marketing campaign, Nitish’s former deputy and RJD scion Tejashwi Yadav claimed that the chief minister was “mentally unfit” and “too outdated” to control the state.Moreover, political pundits had been additionally skeptical about Nitish’s return. They flagged anti-incumbency and infighting inside the NDA to argue that the percentages had been stacked in opposition to him.
Nonetheless, the outcomes offered a special image. Bihar as soon as once more handed a sweeping mandate to the NDA, extending Nitish Kumar’s two-decade-long maintain on energy. The NDA secured a thumping majority, successful 202 seats within the 243-member Home.Throughout the NDA, the BJP emerged because the strongest performer, securing 89 seats — its best-ever outcome within the state — adopted by Nitish Kumar’s JD(U) with 85 seats.SiddaramaiahBecause the Congress authorities reached the midway mark in Karnataka on November 20, speak of a secret settlement turned public. A number of MLAs and MLCs from deputy chief minister DK Shivakumar’s faction camped in Delhi to press the occasion excessive command to honour the “deal” and make him chief minister for the following two and a half years.DKS added gas to the hypothesis after he confirmed the “secret deal,” claiming that there had certainly been “a confidential understanding on management transition amongst 5 – 6 leaders” quickly after the Congress received a landslide within the 2023 elections.
This triggered some of the cordial tussles between chief minister Siddaramaiah and his deputy. The 2 leaders even sat down for breakfast conferences to succeed in an understanding, however the query over the chief ministerial publish remained unanswered.For now, the standoff seems to have eased. Siddaramaiah appears to have purchased extra time from the excessive command, whereas DKS seems to have chosen to attend it out, with each leaders refraining from making any public remarks on the difficulty.Nitin NabinBihar MLA Nitin Nabin’s elevation because the working president of the Bharatiya Janata Get together was an increase that few noticed coming. Whereas political pundits had been speculating concerning the names of bigwigs with sturdy RSS hyperlinks, Nabin’s appointment marked a significant organisational shift on the prime of the ruling occasion.Though he’s solely 45 years outdated, Nabin is a five-term MLA and has dealt with a number of key organisational duties. He served because the Bihar president of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha from 2016 to 2019 and managed the BJP’s Lok Sabha and meeting campaigns in Sikkim in 2019, earlier than being appointed co-incharge of Congress-ruled Chhattisgarh in 2021.At a time when the Congress was thought of the frontrunner to retain energy within the 2023 Chhattisgarh meeting polls, Nabin’s inputs to the BJP management predicted victory, which in the end got here true.Caste arithmetic additionally aligns with Nabin’s elevation as occasion president. The selection of Nabin, an upper-caste Kayastha — a neighborhood that constitutes barely 0.6% of Bihar’s inhabitants and is taken into account politically insignificant within the state — is critical as a result of Kayasthas are among the many key castes in West Bengal, the place meeting elections are scheduled for Might subsequent yr.Welfare schemes focusing on girlsPolitical mobilisation of the ladies vote financial institution by way of welfare schemes noticed its peak within the 2025 Bihar meeting elections. Simply days forward of the elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi rolled out the Mukhya Mantri Mahila Rojgar Yojana, which credited Rs 10,000 to the financial institution accounts of 1.2 crore girls. Moreover, social safety schemes like free electrical energy as much as 125 items and a pension increment had been additionally introduced by chief minister Nitish Kumar within the run-up to the elections. This translated into the polling cubicles as girls voters outnumbered males and shattered turnout information. Whereas the general turnout stood at 66.91 per cent, a unprecedented 71.6 per cent of ladies solid their votes — almost 9 proportion factors increased than the 62.8 per cent turnout amongst males.This overwhelming participation tilted the mandate towards the NDA, boosted by welfare schemes for ladies. The distinction between the 2 alliances was easy: the NDA had already delivered the profit, whereas Mahagathbandhan’s provide remained a marketing campaign promise. For a lot of girls, that distinction — cash already within the financial institution versus a promise of future assist — mattered.Chirag PaswanAt a time when stars will not be aligning for Dalit leaders like Mayawati and Jitan Ram Manjhi, Lok Janshakti Get together (Ram Vilas) chief Chirag Paswan emerged because the third hero within the NDA’s success in Bihar.LJP(RS) received 19 out of 29 seats, propelling the NDA previous the 200-seat mark. Chirag’s dominance in Bihar and inside the NDA was evident even in the course of the seat-sharing talks, when his occasion acquired a justifiable share regardless of solely considered one of its 143 candidates successful in the course of the 2020 meeting polls. His bargaining energy got here from the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, when LJP(RV) received all 5 seats it contested.
Losers
CongressThe fortune wheels didn’t spin for Congress this yr both, as 2024 was marred with ballot routs and infighting for the occasion. Wounded by the defeats in Haryana and Maharashtra in 2024, the grand outdated occasion continued its lackluster efficiency in 2025.It started with the ballot rout within the Delhi meeting elections, the place Congress couldn’t win even a single seat. Along with the ballot outcomes, it additionally suffered an alliance breakup as collateral harm after the Aam Aadmi Get together determined to stroll away from the INDIA bloc.Within the Bihar meeting elections, Congress skilled its steepest decline after it managed to win solely six seats. Rahul Gandhi travelled over 1,300 kilometres to galvanise voter help however fell flat compared to the native points that resonated extra strongly with Bihar’s citizens.In the meantime, the occasion encountered one other disaster in Karnataka after a tussle broke out between Siddaramaiah and DK Shivakumar over the chief ministerial publish. Though the scenario appears defused for now, the occasion is sitting on a ticking time bomb that will detonate quickly.Furthermore, a number of Congress leaders flagged critical issues inside the occasion. Certainly one of them was former Odisha MLA Mohammed Moquim, who wrote to Sonia Gandhi, calling for an “open-heart surgical procedure” within the occasion and flagging a rising disconnect between the management and its employees.
In his letter to Sonia Gandhi dated December 8, ex-Odisha MLA Mohammed Moquim highlighted six consecutive election losses in Odisha and three within the Lok Sabha whereas additionally questioning the choice of Mallikarjun Kharge because the occasion’s chief, claiming that the 83-year-old veteran “is unable to resonate with India’s youth.”Lalu clan2025 was a yr of autumn for the Lalu clan. Lalu Yadav, alongside together with his household and occasion, needed to endure setbacks all year long. Within the Bihar elections, the occasion solely received 25 seats within the meeting elections, registering considered one of its poorest performances.Quickly, issues went south on the household entrance as effectively. Simply days after the ballot outcomes, Rohini Acharya — the second of RJD chief Lalu Prasad’s 9 kids and the donor of the kidney that saved him — introduced that she was quitting politics and “disowning” her household.
Reportedly, Rohini had a heated argument along with her brother Tejashwi Yadav over RJD’s meeting election catastrophe. She additionally alleged she was accused of donating a “soiled kidney” to her father after “extracting crores of rupees and a Lok Sabha ticket.”Earlier, Lalu had expelled his eldest, Tej Pratap Yadav, from the occasion for six years after he shared a photograph with a lady on Fb and claimed he had been in a relationship along with her for 12 years.Later, Tej Pratap went on to kind his personal occasion — Jan Shakti Janta Dal — which drew a clean within the meeting elections.Prashant KishorPrashant Kishor, as soon as hailed as India’s prime election strategist, entered the Bihar polls as a political aspirant and walked out as its greatest loser.After a two-year padyatra throughout Bihar and large media hype round Jan Suraaj, Kishor positioned himself as a transformative various to each the NDA and the Mahagathbandhan. Nonetheless, Jan Suraaj didn’t handle to win a single seat, shedding safety deposits within the majority of the constituencies the place it fielded candidates.Nonetheless, PK has repeatedly stated that he received’t again down. His subsequent take a look at comes a lot prior to 2030 — the panchayat elections in 2026 — the place he could try to make a comeback.Arvind KejriwalAfter two sweeping victories in 2015 and 2020, Kejriwal’s AAP was swept out of energy within the 2025 Delhi meeting elections. Of the 70 meeting constituencies, the BJP clinched 48 seats, whereas AAP managed to safe solely 22.Including insult to harm, Kejriwal additionally misplaced the New Delhi seat to BJP’s Parvesh Verma. Rising to energy as an anti-graft crusader, Kejriwal discovered himself embroiled in corruption instances days forward of the elections.After strolling out of jail on bail, Kejriwal resigned from the highest publish, looking for validation from the general public of Delhi. The union territory, nonetheless, refused to present the stamp of ‘Mr Clear’ to Kejriwal.DK ShivakumarRegardless of pulling each trick within the ebook, DK Shivakumar failed to switch Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah. After the tussle got here out within the open, DKS made a number of journeys to Delhi, however the excessive command has not budged.
DKS checked all the standards to turn out to be the Karnataka CM. He generated funds for the occasion in the course of the elections, and Vokkaliga seers — one of many strongest sects in Karnataka — are additionally backing him. Moreover, nearly all of Congress MLAs are on his aspect.Regardless of this, DKS has determined to take a step again, obey the occasion excessive command and look ahead to the correct time to return because the excessive command huddles in Delhi to ship a solution.Honorable point out: Shashi TharoorBy his attraction and “Tharoorosaurus,” Congress MP Shashi Tharoor remained within the headlines all year long. One more reason he grabbed eyeballs was his standoff together with his personal occasion on completely different events. Regardless of being a member of the CWC, the Thiruvananthapuram MP skipped a number of vital occasion conferences and refused to toe the occasion line on a number of points. This irked many senior leaders of the grand outdated occasion, resulting in repeated to-and-fro exchanges on social media platforms and in media bites.All of it started after Shashi Tharoor emerged as one of many distinguished voices articulating New Delhi’s place following the Pahalgam terror assault and India’s Operation Sindoor. Later, the Centre invited him to guide an Indian delegation as a part of a worldwide outreach after Operation Sindoor, even because the Congress was elevating powerful questions for the federal government. This didn’t go down effectively together with his occasion colleagues, who accused him of cozying as much as the BJP.Nonetheless, simply forward of the Kerala meeting elections, The grand-old-party is reluctant to take strict disciplinary motion in opposition to a well-liked chief within the state, successfully giving Tharoor a free lane to drive on the mistaken aspect.Now, it’s but to be decided whether or not Tharoor got here out as a winner or a loser after the tug-of-war session together with his personal occasion.
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