Bihar polls: NDA set to finalise 102:101 seat sharing formula

A senior JD(U) leader, aware of the development, said that the 102:101 formula, while modestly favouring JD(U), also signals BJP’s intent to keep Nitish on its side

The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) is set to finalise its seat sharing arrangement for the upcoming Bihar assembly polls. Nitish Kumar-led Janata Dal United (JDU) could contest on 102 seats while the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) might contest on 101 seats.

BJP’s Bihar election in-charge Dharmendra Pradhan met chief minister and JD(U) convenor Nitish Kumar in Patna on Sunday. (HT photo)

The development comes a day after BJP’s Bihar election in-charge Dharmendra Pradhan met chief minister and JD(U) convenor Nitish Kumar in Patna on Sunday to chalk out the seat sharing plan. BJP leaders described the meeting as a “courtesy call” but people aware of the developments said the consensus on the seat sharing has been reached.

According to the JD(U) leaders aware of the details, Nitish’s party will contest 102 seats and BJP 101, while the NDA has left 22 seats for Chirag Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) (Ram Vilas), eight seats are likely to be allotted to Jitan Ram Manjhi’s Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) while four to Upendra Kushwaha’s Rashtriya Lok Morcha.

The agreement on the remaining six seats is yet to be decided.

A senior JD(U) leader, aware of the development, said that the 102:101 formula, while modestly favouring JD(U), also signals BJP’s intent to keep Nitish on its side.

“It is much on the expected lines as the NDA is firm to win the upcoming assembly elections, under the leadership of Nitishji. Every ally will get the seats as per their support base and winnability and we’ll repeat our success again,” said legislator Neeraj Kumar, who is also party’s chief spokesperson.

Political analyst Dhirendra Kumar said that the seat sharing formula reflects a larger BJP strategy, which sacrifices a symbolic seat advantage to keep the alliance intact, leverage Nitish’s credibility among women and Economically Backward Class (EBC) voters, and focus on maximising its strike rate where it contests.

“It also underscores Nitish Kumar’s continued clout in state politics despite BJP’s superior strike rate in 2020. This consensus means a lot as the BJP had outperformed JD(U) in the 2020 assembly polls — winning 74 of the 110 seats it contested, compared to JD(U)’s 43 of 115. The decision is definitely a political compromise aimed at preventing any rift with Nitish, who remains critical to NDA’s arithmetic and narrative in Bihar. It is also good news for the NDA that Chirag, who had walked out of the NDA before the 2020 polls and hurt JD(U)’s tally, is learnt to have agreed to scale down his claim from 45 to 22 seats,” he said.

Echoing similar views, a senior LJP leader said that Chirag is expected to meet Union home minister Amit Shah in Delhi on Monday or Tuesday to iron out the final details.

“Our ambitions are not higher than the alliance dharma,” he said, asking not to be named.