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NDA seat-sharing announced, what's up with RJD-Congress Mahagathbandhan?
The ruling NDA announced its seat-sharing formula on Sunday for the upcoming Bihar Assembly election, with BJP and JD(U) contesting equal numbers of seats.
The opposition 'Mahagathbandhan' alliance in Bihar is likely to finalise its seat-sharing in the next few days and may announce its candidates along with a joint manifesto this week.
The ruling NDA announced its seat-sharing formula on Sunday for the upcoming Bihar Assembly election, with the BJP and the JD(U) contesting equal numbers of seats.
According to a PTI report, talks between the RJD and Congress are underway, and their leadership may meet on Monday as RJD's Lalu Prasad and Tejashwi Yadav are in Delhi for talks.
Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said that party president Mallikarjun Kharge was speaking to all the coalition partners in Bihar.
"The Congress president has been speaking to all the coalition partners in Bihar, and the final discussion is on for deciding candidates in a few seats where the Congress and some other parties feel they are strong. The Congress president is talking to all political leaders for the last two days in Bihar," PTI quoted Ramesh as saying.
He said the talks between the RJD and Congress leaderships are also ongoing, and the leaders of the two main parties may meet by Monday.
"We have to adjust some new partners in the 'Mahagathbandhan', and we have to adjust them too in seat-sharing. In the next two to three days, we expect all the seats to be finalised and declared," he said.
PTI reported that Congress will get more than 50 but fewer than 70 seats, which the party had contested the last time in the Bihar polls. The Congress won 19 assembly seats in the last Bihar polls, while the RJD contested on 144 seats and bagged 75 in the 243-member Assembly.
Bihar will vote in two phases, on November 6 and 11, with the counting of votes set for November 14.
NDA seat sharing announced
Reflecting a change in political equations within Bihar's ruling alliance, the JDU and BJP have decided to contest an equal number of seats in the 2025 election. The math is impacted majorly by the entry of Chirag Paswan's LJP(RV).
Here's the math of the 243 seats as divided among NDA constituents, shared on X by JDU working national chief Sanjay Kumar Jha:
Janata Dal (United) or JDU: 101
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP): 101
Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) or LJP(RV): 29
Rashtriya Lok Morcha (RLM): 6
Hindustani Awam Party (Secular) or HAM(S): 6
This is a significant climbdown for the JDU led by CM Nitish Kumar, which contested 115 seats in the 2020 Bihar assembly election. The BJP has also come down from 110.
In 2020, the Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP), then part of the NDA, contested 11 seats.
The HAM(S), led by former CM Jitan Ram Manjhi, got seven constituencies to contest, while the LJP (then undivided) contested 135 seats on its own, as Chirag Paswan pledged loyalty to the BJP but enmity with the JDU. Both Manjhi and Paswan are now ministers in the Narendra Modi government at the Centre after the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
