Bihar Election 2025: NDA seat-sharing deal likely to be finalised after EC announces poll dates

The NDA's seat-sharing formula is likely to be announced in October. (File: PTI)

The ruling NDA in Bihar appears to have deferred the announcement of candidates for the Assembly elections till the announcement of the poll schedule by the Election Commission of India.

As per party sources, the seat-sharing formula between the alliance partners -- the BJP, JD(U), Chirag Paswan's LJP(RV), Jitan Ram Manjhi's HAM(S) and Upendra Kushwaha's RLM -- is more or less a done deal. However, the announcement of the seat-sharing formula, and the subsequent release of candidate lists, is likely only after the announcement of poll dates.

The broad formula agreed upon could see the BJP and JD(U) contesting a 100-odd seats with Nitish Kumar's party likely to be allocated higher seats to maintain its "big brother" position. The tricky part, however, lies in pacifying smaller alliance partners who have all placed demands for a higher allocation.

Union Minister Chirag Paswan, for instance, is rigid on his demand for 40-plus seats for the LJP(RV), a demand that the BJP or JD(U) are unlikely to concede. While NDA leaders admit that Chirag is an indispensable part of the NDA, they also fear that a solo foray by the LJP(RV) could end up damaging the prospects of the JD(U) like it did in the 2020 Assembly elections.

The party, while managing a solitary win in the 135 seats it contested, managed to limit the JD(U) to second position in many of them. The HAM(S) as well as the JD(U), however, have opposed Chirag's demand.

In the 2020 elections, the BJP contested 110 seats and won 74 of them. On the other hand, the JD(U) could manage only 43 seats of the 115 it fielded its candidates from. Mukesh Sahni's Vikassheel Insaan Party, which contested 13 seats last time as part of NDA, is now part of the Mahagathbandhan.

Upendra Kushwaha, who leads the Rastriya Lok Morcha, contested the 2020 polls in alliance with Asaduddin Owaisi's AIMIM but is now part of the NDA.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), meanwhile, is all set to hold meetings with key leaders from all districts of Bihar on September 24 and 25. According to state president Dilip Jaiswal, 15 to 20 leaders from each district have been called to Patna for these meetings, reports India Today. The meetings will be held separately for each district and will focus on candidate selection.

District presidents, current and former MPs, MLAs, MLCs and other public representatives will attend the discussions.

Elections are due to be held in Bihar later this year. A full team of the Election Commission of India is expected to visit the poll-bound state next week to review its poll preparedness. The visit is likely to coincide with the publication of the final electoral roll in Bihar following an elaborate special revision of voter lists.

The announcement of the poll schedule, sources say, could happen any time after Dussehra which falls on October 2 this year while polls are likely to be held in three phases between November 5 and 15.

The term of the current Bihar Assembly concludes on November 22.