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.[1][2]
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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.[4][5]