Bihar Assembly Elections 2025 | Tension, competing demands at BJP, NDA allies' meet to finalise seat-sharing formula

New Delhi: The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) convened a high-stakes meeting in Delhi as it raced against time to finalise seat-sharing arrangements ahead of the Bihar assembly polls. Nominations for the first phase of the polls started on Saturday.

Key figures of the BJP, along with senior leaders of allied parties like LJP (Ram Vilas), Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM), and RLM, attended to hammer out the division of constituencies.

The meeting was marked by tension and competing demands. HAM leader Jitan Ram Manjhi reportedly expressed dissatisfaction with the proposed allocation, feeling the offer of 7–8 seats fell short of his expectation of 15. Simultaneously, Chirag Paswan of LJP (RV) insisted on a greater share. While he initially demanded 40 seats, he later bought down his demand to around 25–26. Amid these demands, senior BJP leaders mediated to keep the alliance from fracturing.

JD(U) and BJP are likely to contest over 100 seats each in the 243-member assembly. Lesser partners are asked to agree to allocations to ensure caste representation and strategic distribution of tickets. As per sources, the final division could have Chirag Paswan contesting on 26 seats, Jitan Ram Manjhi on 8, and Upendra Kushwaha on 7.

While the BJP ceded to Chirag’s demands for a number of seats, they refused to give up the Brahmpur seat he had asked for. Chirag had also asked for Govindganj seat which the BJP gave him. The other partners, as per sources, are unhappy with the upper hand given to Chirag.

Following the meeting, BJP’s Bihar unit chief Dilip Jaiswal said that there was no fight among the partners. “Everything is fine within the NDA and a formal announcement on seat shares and candidate lists would be made soon,” he said. Tickets are likely to be announced by Sunday morning.

The face of the chief ministerial candidate was is again likely to be Nitish Kumar. BJP leader Giriraj Singh said that the BJP will fight under Nitish’s leadership, adding that there was no discord among the NDA on that front.