NDA deal done in Bihar poll; Chirag Paswan to get 26, Jitan Ram Manjhi 8 and Upendra Kushwaha 7
By Tajdar H. Zaidi
Brokering the last of the deals: the NDA has finalised a wide-ranging seat-sharing arrangement for the upcoming Bihar assembly elections, allotting 26 seats to Chirag Paswan’s LJP (Ram Vilas), 8 to Jitan Ram Manjhi’s Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) and 7 to Upendra Kushwaha’s outfit — moves that close a chapter of intense negotiations between Patna and Delhi and set the stage for candidate announcements next week.
Top BJP functionaries — including Bihar in-charge Dharmendra Pradhan and organisational co-in-charge Vinod Tawde — carried out multiple rounds of talks with alliance partners, shuttling between Patna and the national capital to broker a settlement acceptable to all sides.
Those deliberations accelerated after Union minister Nityanand Rai stepped in to meet LJP chief Chirag Paswan in Delhi, lending a decisive nudge to the negotiations, party sources said.
According to leaders close to the process, the broad contours now have the BJP and Janata Dal (United) effectively carving up the lion’s share of the state’s 243 seats — each party expected to fight roughly around 100 constituencies — while the smaller NDA partners will contest the remaining allotment under the formula just agreed.
Party strategists say this split reflects electoral arithmetic and incumbent calculations as the alliance frames its challenge to the opposition.
Negotiations were described by participants as hard-fought but ultimately pragmatic. After protracted bargaining — and some public signalling by allies about their demands — the parties reached an accommodation that leaders hope will preserve NDA unity going into a tightly contested poll season.
LJP insiders told reporters that Paswan’s central parliamentary board would meet to ratify final candidates for the seats his party has been offered. At the same time, RLM and HAM sources signalled they would soon finalise their shortlists.
Not everyone, however, has accepted media assertions that talks were entirely over: Rashtriya Lok Morcha president Upendra Kushwaha cautioned that reports of a complete consensus were premature and reiterated that discussions were still underway in some pockets.
Party veterans say such caveats are typical in alliance bargaining — issued both to preserve negotiation space and to manage internal expectations.
Practicalities and timelines are being put in place now that an outline has been agreed. State BJP leaders were asked to converge in Delhi for core group deliberations, and the party’s Central Election Committee is scheduled to meet to finalise ticketing — with senior leaders expected to sign off on the first tranche of names imminently.
BJP sources and state leaders have indicated that formal announcements on seat sharing and candidate lists will follow the central meetings, likely rolling out over the weekend into early next week.
Political implications and the road ahead
Analysts say the deal shores up the NDA’s immediate organisational coherence and hands the BJP the flexibility to manage local arithmetic against the INDIA-bloc.
For Chirag Paswan, the allocation of about two dozen seats is a notable reinforcement of his bargaining clout after earlier demands for a larger quota; for Manjhi and Kushwaha, the package gives them a compact slate to contest and mobilise their core voters.
Still, the real test will be candidate selection in winnable seats and how the alliance presents a united campaign front in the face of opposition appeals.
What to watch for next: formal ratification from each party’s parliamentary board or central committees, the BJP’s Central Election Committee decisions, and the release of the first official candidate list — steps that will convert the seat-sharing headlines into concrete electoral matchups across Bihar.
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