Bihar election: NDA seat-sharing talks in final stages, Nitish Kumar names JD(U)’s first candidate

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar (File photo/PTI)

Bihar chief minister and JD(U) chief Nitish Kumar on Saturday announced his party’s first candidate for the upcoming Assembly polls, even as seat-sharing discussions in the NDA bloc remain unsettled.

The development came days after the Nitish Kumar-led party said it wanted to contest “at least one seat more” than the BJP.

Kumar announced Santosh Kumar Nirala as the JD(U) candidate for the Rajpur (reserve) seat in Buxar district.

His remarks came at a party meeting in Buxar, in the presence of BJP leader and deputy chief minister Samrat Choudhary.

“We have been working very hard and achieved several landmarks of development. It is the job of the people to support us and make Nirala win from here,” said Kumar, as he pointed towards Nirala, who was defeated by Congress’s Vishwanath Ram in the 2020 Assembly elections.

Nirala was first elected MLA from Rajpur in 2010, followed by his victory in 2015. However, he lost to Congress candidate Vishwanath Ram in 2020, when JD(U) contested alongside BJP.

The announcement by Nitish Kumar came days after JD(U) indicated that it wanted to contest at least one seat more than the BJP, despite having won fewer seats in 2020.

Even as JD(U) bagged 43 seats against BJP’s 74 last time, Nitish’s party is looking to retain the old seat-sharing formula that gave it a larger share of constituencies.

Both sides, however, sought to downplay any rift.

JD(U) spokesperson Neeraj Kumar said Rajpur was a traditional stronghold of the party, while BJP’s Manoj Sharma termed Nitish “the leader of the NDA" and said the announcement was within his prerogative.

“We have been contesting from Rajpur and Nirala has represented the constituency twice before losing the 2020 polls. He is our candidate for the upcoming polls. Nitish, who has been interacting with party workers from Rajpur, found it befitting to announce Nirala’s candidature," the JD(U) leader was quoted as saying by The Indian Express.

The NDA partners -- JD(U), BJP, Chirag Paswan’s LJP (Ram Vilas), Jitan Ram Manjhi’s HAM(S), and Upendra Kushwaha’s RLM – are expected to finalise the seat-sharing talks anytime after the September 9 Vice Presidential polls.