The announcement of NDA’s candidate list for the Bihar Assembly election has been delayed due to unresolved issues between the BJP, JDU, and Chirag Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas). The JDU had earlier said the seat-sharing list would be released by 4 PM today, but it has now been postponed until tomorrow evening. Bihar BJP president Dilip Jaiswal confirmed that the five NDA allies will jointly announce their candidates on Tuesday, and nominations will take place between October 15 and 18 in the presence of senior party leaders. Sources added that Union Home Minister Amit Shah may also attend some nomination events.
According to internal sources, the dispute isn’t about the total number of seats but rather about which constituencies each party will contest. Tensions arose after JDU was asked to give up some of its current or losing seats to accommodate BJP and LJP-R candidates. The disagreement reportedly involves about eight crucial seats. BJP’s election in-charge for Bihar, Dharmendra Pradhan, is holding discussions with leaders of all three parties to resolve the matter. Chirag Paswan is currently in Delhi, while his campaign coordinator Arun Bharti and his relative, who is an MP, are engaged in talks in Patna. Party insiders say the issue might be settled by tonight or tomorrow. They also clarified that the delay has nothing to do with leaders like Jitan Ram Manjhi or Upendra Kushwaha.
Also read: BJP to Skip ‘Gujarat Model’ in Bihar Polls; Candidate List Based on Three-Point Formula
Back in 2020, Chirag Paswan’s LJP contested 136 seats on its own but managed to win only one the Matihani seat. That MLA, Raj Kumar Singh, later joined JDU. Chirag now wants to field his candidate again from Matihani, but JDU is unwilling to let go of the seat. He’s also eyeing Tarapur and Rajgir, both currently held by JDU MLAs. Other contentious seats include Sahebpur Kamal, where JDU was the runner-up and the LJP candidate had secured more votes than the margin of JDU’s defeat.
LJP’s allotted 29 seats will have to come from constituencies previously contested by BJP, JDU, Jitan Ram Manjhi’s HAM, and Mukesh Sahani’s VIP. Upendra Kushwaha’s Rashtriya Lok Morcha (RLM) is likely to get six seats from the same pool. In 2020, Kushwaha had contested in alliance with Mayawati’s BSP and Asaduddin Owaisi’s AIMIM, fielding candidates on 99 seats but failing to win any. BSP’s lone winning MLA and four of AIMIM’s five MLAs later joined other parties, mostly the JDU and RJD.