New Delhi: The BJP and the Janata Dal- United (JDU) will contest 101 seats each in the Bihar Assembly elections to be held in November. The Chirag Paswan-led LJP (Ram Vilas) has been allotted 29 seats, it was announced by the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) on Sunday evening.
Of the remaining seats out of the 243, the Rashtriya Lok Morcha and Hindustani Awam Morcha will fight six each, it was announced.
This announcement was much awaited with many expecting the BJP to demand a lion’s share of the seats. Presently, the party has 74 seats as compared to the JDU’s 43. The decision to fight equal number of seats has come as a surprise for many who wonder whether JDU leader and chief minister Nitish Kumar has enough left in him to even repeat the 2020 performance.
“The BJP clearly did not want any bad blood within the alliance at this later stage. It is hoping for the Modi magic to work both for itself and the JDU. Even if the BJP manages 80 seats and the JDU gets around 40, the NDA will reach the magic figure of 123 with the LJP’s support,” a political observer noted.
Meanwhile, seat-sharing woes may continue to plague the INDI Alliance in Bihar for some more time. Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad is camping in Delhi at the moment with son and former Bihar deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav. They are expected to discuss the issue with the Congress in the days to come.
The RJD emerged the largest single party in the 2020 Bihar Assembly elections with 75 seats, while the Congress managed only 19. However, sources claim that the Congress believes it has a better chance in the state this time after Rahul Gandhi’s Vote Adhikar Yatra and may bargaining for more seats.
While Lalu or his wife Rabri Devi, a former chief minister of Bihar herself refused to interact with the media, Tejashwi said: “All is Well”.
A surprise element in this year’s Bihar elections will be the Jan Suraaj Party (JSP) launched by political analyst and spin doctor Prashant Kishor. On Sunday, an FIR was registered against this party for alleged violation of the model code of conduct (MCC) in Tejashwi’s Raghopur Assembly constituency a day earlier.