Bihar polls: BJP, JD(U) likely to contest on fewer seats than in 2020; NDA allies stand ground on seat claims | India News

NEW DELHI: The Bharatiya Janata Party and Janata Dal (United)-led National Democratic Alliance in Bihar has hit a roadblock amid seat-sharing talks, with smaller allies making large demands as the assembly elections inch closer.Citing sources, news agency PTI reported that both BJP and JD(U) are likely to contest on 102 and 101 seats respectively to manage the demands of other allies. This is a sharp reduction in the seats of both the parties as BJP contested on 110 seats in 2020 assembly elections, while JD(U) contested on 115 seats.Meanwhile, Chirag Paswan’s LJP (RV) has convened an emergency party meeting at its Patna office on Tuesday to discuss the Bihar Assembly elections.“A meeting has been called by the party’s in-charge, who has also been given the responsibility of election in-charge. This meeting will be held under the leadership of our state president Raju Tiwari. In the coming days, discussions will take place regarding election strategies, seats, and candidates. The party’s state parliamentary board meeting was also held a few days ago. A proposal has already been sent after the central parliamentary board meeting. A meeting of the central parliamentary board will also be held very soon to finalise all matters,” Chirag said.

Chirag Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas), which had earlier settled for around 20-22 seats, is now asking for at least 25 more. Moreover, senior leaders in the party are of the opinion that the party should get at least 45 seats, a party leader said on the condition of anonymity.In the 2020 elections, Paswan walked out of NDA and contested separately, winning just one seat but damaging the JD(U) in dozens of constituencies and contributing to chief minister Nitish Kumar’s party posting its lowest tally in two decades, 43.Additionally, another NDA ally HAM also demanded at least 15 seats to contest. After his poetic dig at BJP, former chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi asserted that “My party would prefer not to contest polls if we don’t get a respectable number of seats. But, I must make it clear that even if we don’t contest polls, our party will keep working for the NDA partners.”Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan, along with other senior BJP leaders, had earlier met Manjhi also to discuss the seat-sharing arrangements.Meanwhile, Pradhan, along with Vinod Tawde, met party leaders in Patna to discuss the seat-sharing arrangements and finalise the list of party candidates.Talking to reporters, BJP MP Sanjay Jaiswal said, “Everything is fine within the NDA. The final decision about the seat-sharing arrangements and other issues, including names of the party candidates, will be taken in the parliamentary board meeting.”Jaiswal also attended the party’s election committee meeting held at the BJP state office in Patna, which lasted for more than four hours.

In the 2020 assembly election, BJP contested 110 seats and won 74, securing 19.8% of the vote share with a strike rate of 43.2%. The Janata Dal (United) contested 115 seats and won 43, with a 15.7% vote share and a 33.5% strike rate. The Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) contested 7 seats, winning 4, achieving 0.9% of the vote share and a 32.9% strike rate.The Election Commission has announced the schedule for the Bihar Assembly elections. The 243 Assembly seats will go to the polls in two phases on November 6 and November 11, with the counting of votes scheduled to take place on November 14.The total number of electors in the final list stands at 7.42 crore, while there were 7.89 crore electors as of June 24 this year. An Election Commission press release stated that 65 lakh voters were removed from the draft list, and the number of electors in the draft list as of August 1, 2025, stood at 7.24 crore.