As soon as the turmoil in Bihar politics ends, the discussion about 2025 assembly elections has intensified. With the elections to be held after about nine months, the constituent parties of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) have now started openly discussing seat sharing. Pashupati Kumar Paras’s party, Rashtriya Lok Janshakti Party (RLJPA), was out of the NDA after the Lok Sabha elections. Currently the Bihar NDA includes Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Janata Dal United (JDU), Lok Janshakti Party-Ram Vilas (LJP-R), Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) and Rashtriya Lok Morcha (RLMO). 243 seats are to be divided among these five parties, if no other party becomes a part of NDA till the elections.
Ham leader and Union Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi, known for speaking openly about seat distribution in NDA, has demanded 20 seats, and also said that his workers are preparing for elections on 40 seats. When the media asked what he would do if he did not get 20 seats, Manjhi said, “Where else can you get the love and prestige that Narendra Modi and Nitish Kumar give. It’s about our family.” It is clear from his statement that there can be a serious fight within the NDA regarding seats. Manjhi has also announced to mobilize 2 lakh people at Gandhi Maidan.
According to NDA sources, no formal talks have taken place yet on seat sharing, but in the meetings of the leaders, it is definitely being discussed who will contest on how many seats. Sources say that JDU wants to regain the status of elder brother due to better performance in the Lok Sabha elections and under the leadership of Nitish Kumar. In the Lok Sabha elections, JDU had contested 16 seats, while BJP had contested 17 seats. Apart from this, LJP got 5 seats and 1 seat each was given to us and RLMO.
According to reliable sources, according to the talks going on at present, BJP and JDU will contest at least 100 seats together. JDU is trying to get 2-3 more seats than BJP, so that there is no confusion regarding the status of elder brother in Bihar NDA. Under this, JDU can contest on 102-103 seats, BJP on 100-101 seats, LJP-R on 25-26 seats, Jitan Ram Manjhi’s HAM on 7-8 seats and Upendra Kushwaha’s RLMO on 7-8 seats.
In Bihar Assembly elections 2020, JDU contested 115 seats and BJP 110 seats. At that time, Mukesh Sahni’s Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP) was in the NDA and had got 11 seats, while Manjhi’s party HAM had got 7 seats. Chirag Paswan’s LJP had contested alone on 134 seats, due to which Nitish Kumar’s JDU suffered a huge loss and could win only 43 seats. BJP contested 110 seats and won 74 seats. 4-4 MLAs from Manjhi and Sahni were elected. Later all the MLAs of Mukesh Sahni’s party joined BJP.
