The NDA on Sunday agreed to a seat-sharing formula for next month’s Bihar Assembly elections, with the BJP and the Janata Dal (United) agreeing to contest 101 each. The deal, confirmed by JD(U) national working president Sanjay Jha and BJP’s election in-charge Dharmendra Pradhan, gives the Chirag Paswan-led Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vikas) 29 seats, while the Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) of Jitan Ram Manjhi and the Rashtriya Lok Morcha (RLM) of Upendra Kushwaha will contest six seats each.
This is the first time since they allied in 1996 that the BJP and the JD(U) will contest an equal number of seats in the Assembly polls. In 2020, the JD(U) contested 122 seats and the BJP 121, with the JD(U) giving the HAM(S) seven seats out of its share and the BJP allocating 11 seats to the Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP) of Mukesh Sahani from its share.
The accord ends weeks of intra-alliance negotiations, during which the LJP (RV) and the HAM (S) aggressively pushed for a higher share. While Paswan’s party initially pushed for 40 seats and then 35, Manjhi is learnt to have demanded 15 constituencies.
NDA sources said the alliance initially sought to limit the LJP (RV) to 20–25 seats, but eventually conceded in view of its electoral leverage. The final decision was taken after a meeting of the BJP’s Central Election Committee (CEC) in Delhi attended by PM Narendra Modi and senior BJP leaders from Delhi and Bihar.
The LJP (RV)’s demand was a major sticking point in the talks. The party’s strong performance in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, when it won all five seats it contested and secured over 6% of the total vote share, gave it bargaining power. Sources in the BJP, however, said the party won these seats due to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership and not because of its political heft.
In 2020, a year before its split, the LJP contested 135 of Bihar’s 243 Assembly seats, costing the NDA dearly. In 64 constituencies, where the party finished third or lower, it polled more votes than the victory margin. Of these seats, it directly hurt the JD(U) in 27 seats, where it finished second.
“The LJP (RV) has still received more seats than it deserves. We were initially not in favour of more than 20 seats for the party. It was then revised to 23 and then to 26 because Chirag kept pushing. For the sake of the alliance remaining strong and united, we have agreed to 29,” said a senior BJP leader from Bihar.
Another BJP leader said, “Chirag Paswan was the hard bargainer. As he is a key ally in the Centre, we had to concede his demands. The LJP started with 40 seats, scaled down to 35, and eventually settled with 29 seats. Manjhi was convinced with six seats after a call from the PM. He is said to have demanded one MLC position in future.”
“The important thing is that the NDA is first off the block while the Mahagathbandhan continues bickering over seats. It shows we are a united force,” Sanjay Jha told The Indian Express.
The RLM agreed to six seats after being assured that Kushwaha would be allowed to retain his Rajya Sabha seat after the term expires next April. The party is expected to contest Mahua, Ujiiarpur, Sasaram, Dinara, Madhubani, and Bajpatti, according to sources.
“We saw how Upendra Kushwaha, who contested in another smaller alliance, affected the NDA last time, especially in the Shahabad and Magadh belt. Kushwaha, like the LJP (RV), is an important ally for us,” said a senior BJP leader.
NDA insiders said this was the first time the BJP led the discussions with the allies, with the JD(U) learnt to have made it clear that it would stay away from the negotiations with the smaller allies. The Nitish Kumar-led party is said to have pushed for one more seat than the BJP to “establish its primacy” in the alliance, arguing that its strike rate in the Lok Sabha polls last year was marginally better than that of the BJP (it won 12 out of 16 constituencies, while the latter bagged 12 of the 17 seats it contested). Sources said the BJP countered the JD(U) demand by pointing out the latter’s tally of 43 in 2020 was way lower than its 74 seats. In the end, the Nitish-led party acquiesced to the seat-sharing formula.
The seat allocation leaves nothing for new entrants or surprise players, quite possibly ruling out the NDA return of Sahani’s VIP, which is driving a hard bargain in the Mahagathbandhan.
NDA Big 3 in 2020
- JD(U): Contested 115, Won 43, Vote Share: 19.46%
- BJP: Contested 110, Won 74, Vote Share: 15.39%
- LJP (then undivided): Contested 135 on its own, Won 1, vote share: 5.66%