While the Election Commission (EC) has announced the dates for the Bihar Assembly elections to be held in two phases – 121 seats on November 6 and 122 seats on November 11 – both the ruling NDA and the Opposition Mahagathbandhan have yet to conclude their seat-sharing negotiations in the face of pushback from their smaller partners.
In the NDA camp, amid reports of Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) president and Union minister Chirag Paswan’s reluctance to settle for fewer seats than his demand for 40, another ally and Union minister Jitan Ram Manjhi, the Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) chief, has now openly voiced his concerns.
The former Bihar chief minister said Wednesday that if his party is not allotted at least 15 seats, it would withdraw from contesting the polls while still backing the NDA.
Manjhi took to X to make a pointed demand for 15 seats as he posted a tweaked version of renowned Hindi poet Ramdhari Singh Dinkar’s poem Rashmirathi. While the original verses, recounting Lord Krishna’s plea to prevent the war of Mahabharata, mention a request for five villages on behalf of Pandavas, Manjhi changed this number to 15 to reflect his demand.
“Ho nyay agar to aadha do, yadi usmein bhi koi badha ho, to de do keval 15 gram, rakho apni dharti tamam, HAM wahi khushi se khayenge, parijan pe asi na uthayenge (If justice permits, give us half; if that’s an obstacle, then grant just 15 villages and retain the entire land. HAM will gladly accept and won’t lift swords against our own),” Manjhi’s tweet read.
“हो न्याय अगर तो आधा दो,
यदि उसमें भी कोई बाधा हो,
तो दे दो केवल 15 ग्राम,
रखो अपनी धरती तमाम,
HAM वही ख़ुशी से खाएंगें,
परिजन पे असी ना उठाएँगे”— Jitan Ram Manjhi (@jitanrmanjhi) October 8, 2025
His poetic nudge came amid indications that the NDA’s seat-sharing deal is far from being sealed.
“There is no dispute over the seats. We are just asking for a (certain) seat number, so that our party gets recognition in the Bihar Assembly… I do not want to become CM or Deputy CM. I simply want our party to be recognised. This is my main demand,” Manjhi told reporters.
When pressed further, he said his party would sit out the elections, adding “We will not contest elections for even one seat, (but) we will stay with NDA.”
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Manjhi said, “Our party was formed in 2015. Today we have four members in the Assembly, one member in the Legislative Council who is a minister, but in two recent instances we were insulted… When voter lists were being distributed our people did not receive them because we are not a recognised party.”
“On another occasion, the EC invited all parties (for a meeting) but did not call us… How long must we endure this humiliation? There are those who don’t even have one MLA who consider themselves important,” he said.
“It was Jitan Ram Manjhi who first said he would fight the election under Nitish Kumar’s leadership who would be the next CM. When the Vice Presidential election came up, Manjhi was the first to tweet that ‘this is a good man, he will become the Vice President’. We always support the NDA, but the NDA must also make sure that Jitan Ram Manjhi is not humiliated,” he said.
Manjhi also said that in the 2020 Assembly polls, the HAM (Secular) won four seats out of seven it contested with nearly 60% strike rate. “Many others had 50, 40 or 30% rate. Today…if we are allotted around 15 seats, we could win 8–9 seats and possibly emerge as a significant political force.”
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He said he has given two options to the NDA leadership. “If we are not given 15 seats, we remain an unrecognised party, so there is no point in fighting elections, and we will not contest. I am supporter of Narendra Modi … whoever Modi signals for, I will work day and night for those NDA candidates,” he added.
BJP leaders have been engaged with the smaller NDA allies to hammer out a deal. Senior BJP leaders Dharmendra Pradhan and Vinod Tawde have already held meetings with Chirag.
However, Chirag, said a BJP source, has been bargaining hard for some time, up to the extent that he has also sent feelers that he may explore other options if his demand is entirely rejected.
Sources said CM Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United) and the BJP have staked their claims for about 100 of the state’s 243 seats each – with the JD(U) pressing for one seat more than the BJP’s share – leaving the rest for smaller allies with roughly 24 seats for the LJP(RV), 10 for the HAM, and six for Upendra Kushwaha’s Rashtriya Lok Morcha (RLM).
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With Chirag and Manjhi insisting on 40 seats and 15 seats respectively, the numbers are not adding up unless the BJP and the JD (U) give more to Chirag and Manjhi by cutting from their own quotas and that of the RLSP. “There is also the option of giving an additional MLC post and maybe a Rajya Sabha berth to Chirag. The party leadership is unlikely to offer him even 30 seats. His share should be in the 20s,” said a BJP leader.
Once the seat-sharing formula is fixed, perhaps around October 10, the BJP’s central election committee will meet to finalise the names of the party candidates. “This time some big names may contest the elections. Don’t be surprised if you find some ex-MPs or former Union ministers on our list,” the leader said.
On the other hand, in the Mahagathbandhan camp led by the RJD and the Congress, their Left allies are also voicing discontent with 19 seats being offered to them as they have sought around 30.
Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP) chief Mukesh Sahani, who has been demanding 50 seats, has also been reportedly offered only about half that number.