The 10th Bihar Legislative Assembly elections were held in February 1990, to elect representatives for the Bihar Legislative Assembly. It resulted in a decisive victory for the Janta Dal, riding on the pan-India victory of 1989, during V. P. Singh's wave. Political manoeuvres ensured parliamentarian Lalu Prasad Yadav's victory in the chief minister-ship battle, against seasoned Bihar leader Ram Sundar Das, who was close to Janta party stalwarts like S.N. Sinha and Chandrashekhar.
Results
Party-wise PartySeatsVoteContestedWon+/-%+/-Janata Dal (JD)276122new25.61%newIndian National Congress (INC)3237112524.78%14.52%Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)237392311.61%4.07%Communist Party of India (CPI)10923116.59%2.27%Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM)8219103.14%1.32%Indian People's Front (IPF)827new2.77%newCommunist Party of India (Marxist) (CPM)31651.33%0.28%Janata Party (JP)1583101.54%5.67%Marxist Co-ordination Committee (MCC)112new0.22%newJharkhand Party (JHP)281new0.42%newSocialist Party (SOP)471new0.34%newIndependents432030118.42%0.54%Total324Source:Election Commission of India. STATISTICAL REPORT ON GENERAL ELECTION, 1990 TO THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY OF BIHAR
The Janata dal gained majority in the house by the outside support of CPI, CPI(M), JMM and a few independents. This was followed by an internal election within the Janata dal for chief minister post. The fight was between Ram sundar Das (supported by PM VP Singh) and Lalu Yadav (supported by Deputy PM Devi Lal). Sensing a strong opponent, Lalu requested Chandra Shekhar to ask Ragunath Jha to contest, which tilted the election in his favour. Nitish Kumar and Sharad Yadav rallied backward caste MLAs towards Yadav. In the election, Yadav won narrowly over Das by a vote of 59 to 56. Jha won 12, mostly upper caste MLAs.
Constituency-wise