BJP & JD(U) 101 each, allies share rest

NEW DELHI: The ruling NDA combine has finalised the deal on Bihar Assembly seats after parleys that went on for the past few weeks. The BJP and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United) will contest 101 each of the state’s 243 Assembly seats in the upcoming election.

The break-up was posted on X on Sunday, by Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan. The Rashtriya Lok Morcha of Upendra Kushwaha and Jitan Ram Manjhi’s Hindustan Awam Morcha or HAM will get six seats each, posted Dharmendra Pradhan, who is also the BJP’s in-charge for the state’s Assembly polls.

Chirag Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) - for which the deal was held up for long -- will get 29 seats. The regional ally of the BJP had been playing hardball, demanding 40-45 seats, while the BJP was ready to allocate only 25 seats. The leaders of the party had even indicated that they would not rule out a tie up with Prashant Kishor’s recently launched Jan Suraaj Party.

This is the first Assembly poll since Nitish Kumar led the NDA to end the 15-year reign of the RJD-led government in 2005 that his Janata Dal (United) will not be contesting more seats than the BJP in alliance, a clear signal of the acknowledgement within the ruling bloc of the regional party’s decline and the BJP’s growing heft.

The BJP had contested one more seat in the state than the JD(U) in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, also a first.

Pradhan said all NDA partners have completed the seat-distribution exercise in a cordial manner. He said, “Leaders and workers of all NDA parties welcome this with happiness. Bihar is ready for another NDA government.”

Chirag Paswan, who seems to have drawn the best bargain, and Kushwaha echoed Pradhan’s message. What acted as gamechanger was the LJP’s insistence that the number of seats be allocated to his party on the basis of the five Lok Sabha seats it won in 2024 Lok Sabha polls and its performance in the 2020 Assembly elections. The LJP had a 100 per cent strike rate (five contested, five won), in the general election.

Manjhi, whose quota of seats is far short of his public posturing, had in a post a few hours before Pradhan’s announcement asserted his loyalty to Prime Minister Narendra Modi till “my last breath”.

The announcement followed days of negotiations involving senior BJP leadership and their allies except the JD(U), which had reached an understanding with the principal NDA party earlier.

The 243-member Bihar assembly will go to the polls in two phases on November 6 and 11. In 2020, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar-led JD(U) had contested on 115 seats and the BJP on 110 seats, while Paswan’s party had fought independently due to his differences with Kumar. Bihar Assembly polls will be held in two phases -- on November 6 and 11. Counting of votes will be taken up on November 14.With Agency Inputs