New DelhiOctober 15, 2025 01:37 PM IST
First published on: Oct 15, 2025 at 01:37 PM IST
In another sign of unsettled tensions in both Bihar coalitions as the poll clock ticks on, Rashtriya Lok Morcha (RLM) chief Upendra Kushwaha travelled to Delhi Wednesday morning for a meeting with Union Home Minister and chief BJP negotiator Amit Shah.
Last night, Kushwaha had called an “urgent party meeting” for 12.30 pm on Wednesday, which now stands rescheduled.
Sources said that the source of Kushwaha’s consternation are rumours that the Lok Janshakti Party (RV) is bargaining for the Mahua seat in Vaishali district, which was reportedly assured to the RLM as part of the NDA seat-sharing. Already, there is much heartburn in the alliance that the Chirag Paswan-led party has got as many as 29 seats in the NDA kitty.
Apart from Mahua, the RLM was reportedly promised Sasaram, Ujiarpur, Bajpatti, Madhubani and Dinara.
The RJD incidentally had won all these six seats in the 2020 Assembly polls, which means the RLM has a task on its hands already.
“The RLM has finalised its candidates and the nomination filing is scheduled for Thursday. But now the LJP (RV) is demanding Mahua. Hence, the party chief (Kushwaha) has gone to meet the BJP leadership in Delhi,” an RLM leader said.
Late on Tuesday, after the BJP declared 71 candidates for its quota of 101 seats in Bihar, Kushwaha and Union minister Nityanand Rai of the BJP had met BJP leader and Deputy Chief Minister Samrat Chaudhary at his home. Kushwaha’s quip to the media after the meeting had suggested that a new rift was brewing. “This time, nothing is well in the NDA,” he said.
On Wednesday, Rai accompanied Kushwaha to Delhi for the meeting to resolve seat issues.
In the 2020 Assembly elections, the RJD had won from Mahua defeating the JD(U) candidate by 13,770 votes. The LJP contested independently then, and its presence is believed to have spoiled the JD(U)’s chances, as it got 25,198 votes and finished third. Kuswaha’s party — then the Rashtriya Lok Samta Party — finished way behind, with just 6,341 votes.
An RLM source said Kushwaha is already smarting over the RLM being denied the Obra and Kurtha seats, where he believed he had a better chance because of favourable social equations.
The RLM is not the only NDA ally unhappy with the number of seats going to the LJP (RV), with the JD(U) and Hindustan Awami Morcha (Secular) also upset. Like the RLM, the HAM (S) has got 6 seats while the JD(U) is for the first time contesting the same number of seats as the BJP, at 101. JD(U) supremo Nitish Kumar had earlier insisted on at least 1 seat more than the BJP.
In 2020, with the LJP keeping out, the NDA had comprised the BJP, JD(U), HAM(S) and Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP). The VIP is this time a member of the Mahagathbandhan.