Patna : In the middle of an NDA landslide in Bihar, one of the biggest surprises has come from ‘Modi’s Hanuman’ Chirag Paswan, whose party LJP(RV) has emerged as the most unexpected headline-maker of the 2025 results. This surge marks a clear shift for LJP(RV), which has moved from the sidelines of Bihar politics to becoming one of the NDA’s strongest performers in this election.
Contesting as part of the NDA alongside the BJP and JD(U), the party’s performance marks its strongest showing in any Bihar assembly election. The surge has boosted the ruling alliance’s momentum and changed the power equation in Patna, forcing every party to reassess its political calculations. LJP(RV) had been allotted 29 seats under the NDA’s seat-sharing formula, a number that had drawn criticism from some allies.
Chirag gradually rebuilt political capital. By the 2024 Lok Sabha election, he was back in the NDA fold, winning a parliamentary seat and joining the Modi cabinet in its third term.Now 43, Chirag has repeatedly said he had no issues with the BJP or PM Narendra Modi in 2020, only with Nitish Kumar. But in the current campaign, he avoided revisiting that confrontation, even hinting he might consider a shift to state politics “by 2030”.
He chose to go solo, fielding candidates on 137 seats but winning only one. However, his campaign, sharply critical of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, was widely seen as cutting into JD(U)’s vote share, contributing to the party’s slide from 71 seats in 2015 to 43 in the previous election.
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