Bihar Assembly Polls: NDA Seat-Sharing 'Done', Announcement Soon
According to a senior BJP leader privy to the seat-sharing negotiations, his party will contest either 100 or 102 seats.
By Dev Raj
Published : October 11, 2025 at 11:38 AM IST
Patna: The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has finalised the seat-sharing among the allies after much wrangling and hiccups, sources said on Saturday. It came after senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and Union Home Minister Amit Shah put his foot down, asking the allies to put their act together.
The official announcement of the seat allocation could be done as early as Saturday afternoon or on Sunday. The alliance would also declare the names of the candidates for the 121 Assembly constituencies going to poll in the first phase of elections on November 6.
The deal materialised after continuous and hectic discussions among the NDA constituents in Delhi, which continued till late on Friday evening. According to sources, Shah, pointing out that the nomination filing process for the first phase of the election has already started and will close on October 17, told the allies in the presence of BJP national president JP Nadda that the time to bargain was over.
Among the smaller partners, Union Minister of Food Processing Industries Chirag Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) or LJP(R) has been allocated 25 seats. It previously demanded 35 to 40 seats to contest on the basis of its stellar performance in the Lok Sabha elections last year.
Union MSME (Micro, Small, Medium Enterprises) Minister and Hindustani Awam Morcha Secular (HAMS) founder Jitan Ram Manjhi has been given seven seats to contest, while Rajya Sabha member and former Union minister Upendra Kushwaha’s Rashtriya Lok Morcha (RLM) has been provided six seats.
However, the three smaller allies are still vigorously seeking one additional seat to contest as a last-ditch attempt to get more, despite agreeing in principle to the seat allocation. They have left their demand to be considered by the bigger NDA parties – the BJP and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal United (JDU).
Sources pointed out that there were chances of Kushwaha’s demand for an extra seat being met prior to the official announcement of the seat distribution. According to a senior BJP leader privy to the seat-sharing negotiations, his party will contest either 100 or 102 seats, while the JDU will fight on 101 or 103 seats.
“In either case, our party will contest at least one seat less than the JDU – something which was decided a few months ago,” the BJP leader told ETV Bharat. He added that though the number of seats to be contested has been finalised, the parties are ironing out their differences on the seats they want. There are a few seats on which two or more NDA partners have staked a claim.
BJP Bihar unit president Dilip Jaiswal said that the seat-sharing and candidate selection were finalised after a three-day meeting of the central election committee of the party and negotiations with allies. “The seat-sharing issue has been resolved. The announcements will happen either on Saturday or Sunday. The NDA is the alliance of the ‘five Pandavas’. It will go to the people in the polls with rock-solid unity. We will again form the government in the state,” Jaiswal said.
Meanwhile, Manjhi left for Delhi to attend an NDA meeting. Other leaders of his party have already been camping there for the past couple of days. “We are disciplined people and will maintain discipline. We will contest the seats that we will be given,” Manjhi said before catching a flight to Delhi.
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