Bihar Assembly Elections 2025 | RJD and Congress poised to contest against each other in five seats

Congress is headed for a fight against ally CPI in three or four seats if no agreement is reached

New Delhi: The RJD and the Congress are poised to contest against each other in five seats in the Bihar Assembly elections, as the parties on Monday released their lists of candidates, with the Lalu Prasad-led party naming candidates for 143 of the 243 seats and the grand old party in 61.

While the Congress and the RJD are locked in a contest in five seats where both could not reach a compromise, the Congress and the CPI are headed for a fight in three or four seats if no agreement is reached. RJD and VIP are locked in a contest in Babuhashi and Chainpur but a positive note is that both parties have reached a compromise on Guara Boram where the latter would now contest.

At least in five seats, where the polls are in the second phase, leaders could still find a solution as the last date of withdrawal is Wednesday.

At the same time, the RJD put to rest rumours that it would contest Kutumba, held by Bihar Congress chief Rajesh Ram. 

The Congress will be fighting nine seats less than last time but its demand for specific seats have led to a stalemate with both RJD and CPI. 

Both RJD and Congress have fielded candidates in Narkatiaganj, Lalganj, Vaishali, Sultanganj and Kahalgaon. Congress and CPI have fielded candidates against each other in Bachhwara, Kargahar, Biharsharif and Raja Pakar.

CPI(ML)L, which is contesting 20 seats, and CPI(M) fighting four constituencies do not face any 'friendly fight' this time. A top CPI leader said they would talk about it on Tuesday, indicating that backroom talks with the Congress are on. 

In another development, the JMM, which had announced that it would fight six seats, said it would not contest, bringing some relief for the I.N.D.I.A bloc. But it said it would "review" the alliance in Jharkhand where the RJD and the Congress are junior partners. The RJD was given six seats and a ministership by the JMM and it believes that the RJD-Congress engaged in a conspiracy to keep it away from Bihar.

While there are protests in the Congress over candidate selection, hours before the nomination for the second phase of polls to end, the candidature of Minnat Rahmani was announced. Earlier, activist Anupam, who had joined the Congress recently, was tipped to be the candidate but protests against him for his anti-Congress tweets earlier prompted the party to change its earlier decision.

The RJD list included Tejashwi Yadav (Raghopur), Alok Mehta (Ujiyarpur), Mukesh Raushan (Mahua) and Akhtarul Islam Shahin (Samastipur) as well as party chief Lalu Prasad's personal aide Bhola Yadav from Bahadurpur.

The RJD list shows that it is relying on its ‘MY’ (Muslim-Yadav) support base but it has taken care to give a substantial number of seats to non-Yadav OBCs as well as 'upper' castes. It also has fielded 24 women.