NDA postpones Bihar seat-sharing talks, awaiting VP poll’s outcome first.
New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has decided to temporarily pause its seat-sharing discussions for the forthcoming Bihar Assembly elections, slated to take place between mid-October and November this year. Alliance insiders have indicated that negotiations will resume only after the conclusion of the Vice President elections, with the official announcement of the seat-sharing arrangement likely to be made sometime between September 15 and 20.
According to sources, although the broad contours of the seat-sharing formula have already been worked out internally, the NDA leadership intends to wait until the Vice President elections are over before making the final details public. Senior leaders from Bihar have suggested that out of the total 243 Assembly constituencies, the BJP and Janata Dal (United) will jointly fight on 203 seats, while the remaining 40 will be allocated among smaller allies, including the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas), Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM-Secular), and Rashtriya Lok Morcha (RLM).
Tensions, however, are visible among some NDA allies. Sources disclosed that LJP (RV) president Chirag Paswan has been offered only 20 seats, even though he initially staked claim to contest 40. On the other hand, HAM-Secular founder and Union minister Jitan Ram Manjhi is also seeking a greater share of the electoral pie. Manjhi has gone on record declaring that his party plans to contest on 35–40 seats, asserting that HAM-Secular will have no fewer than 20 MLAs in the next Bihar Assembly. Similarly, the Rashtriya Lok Morcha has also expressed aspirations for a respectable share.
Although RLM has not specified an exact figure, a senior leader of the party told The Sunday Guardian that they are preparing their organisation to contest all 243 seats, while making it clear that they intend to fight the election within the NDA framework and are hopeful of being allotted a fair number of constituencies.
For Chirag Paswan, the upcoming Bihar polls carry special significance, given his party’s controversial role in the 2020 Assembly elections. Back then, the LJP fielded candidates directly against the JD-U, a move that severely dented Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s prospects. While the party contested on 135 seats, it managed to win just one. Political observers, however, point out that the LJP effectively played spoiler on nearly 30 seats that could have gone to the JD-U. This time, though, Paswan’s outfit is firmly embedded within the NDA, making a repeat of the 2020 experiment highly improbable.
In the 2020 Bihar elections, the BJP contested 110 constituencies and secured victory in 74, while the JD-U fought 115 and won 43. HAM-Secular entered the fray on seven seats and bagged four, while the Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP), which was also an NDA constituent at that time, contested 11 seats and emerged victorious in four.
As the countdown to the 2025 Bihar Assembly elections begins, the BJP-JD(U) combine appears determined to project unity and strength. Yet, the delicate task of balancing the seat distribution among its smaller allies remains one of the most critical tests for the alliance in the run-up to the polls.
