As the deadline for the nomination for the first phase of the Bihar elections concluded today, it marked a crucial step toward the high-stakes political battle. The NDA announced its candidates for all 243 seats, along with its seat-sharing formula, while the I.N.D.I.A. bloc is still struggling with its seat-sharing disputes, which is sowing confusion among its party workers and voters.
The Bihar Assembly elections are scheduled in two phases — on November 6 and November 11 — with results to be announced on November 14.
The NDA, comprising BJP, JD(U), LJP (Ram Vilas), HAM (Secular), and RLM, completed its seat-sharing formula on 12th October under their agreement. The BJP and JD(U) will contest on 101 seats each, LJP (RV) on 29 seats, while HAM (S) and RLM will field candidates on 6 seats each.
Despite some earlier dissatisfaction among smaller allies, as HAM founder and Union Minister and RLM president and Rajya Sabha MP Upendra Kushwaha publicly showed their dissatisfaction over the number of seats they got, they later reaffirmed their commitment to the alliance, emphasizing unity ahead of their campaign. The NDA partners have launched their ground-level campaigns across the state.
The Mahagathbandhan, led by RJD along with Congress, CPI (ML), CPI, CPM, and VIP, has been unable to present a united front. Even today, the deadline for the first phase of elections, they didn’t announce any official statement regarding the seat-sharing formula of their alliance.
Congress, late on Thursday night, officially announced a list of 48 candidates. RJD distributed symbols to their candidates, CPI (ML) earlier released the list of 18 candidates, and VIP confirmed their candidates on 2 seats, posting about their nominations on the party’s official X account.
On several seats, their candidates overlapped with each other, which shows a lack of communication within their alliance.
This confusion among the I.N.D.I.A. bloc will work as an advantage for the NDA. Even with some disappointment within the NDA, they are still clear with their candidates among their workers and core voters, while the Mahagathbandhan party workers don’t know their official candidates.
The NDA started their campaign with the nominations in the presence of star leaders, sending a strong message to the voters of Bihar.