North India Statesman
News India Live, Digital Desk: Politics Heats up in Bihar: All is not going well within the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) ahead of Bihar Assembly elections 2025! Amidst the ongoing turmoil over seat distribution, Janata Dal United (JDU) has released the first list of its 57 candidates. The biggest thing in this list is that JDU has fielded its candidates on five such seats, on which Chirag Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) was also strongly staking its claim. This step of JDU is likely to increase the tension within the NDA alliance and questions have been raised on what will happen next in ‘Bihar elections’.
JDU’s first list and a direct attack on Chirag Paswan’s ‘jurisdiction’:
In this first list released on Wednesday, October 15, JDU has included many important names, in which five sitting ministers are also contesting from their seats. Veterans like Vijay Chaudhary (Sairaranjan), Shravan Kumar (Nalanda), Sunil Kumar (Bhore), Kaushal Kishore (Rajgir), and Maheshwar Hazari (Kalyanpur) will once again contest their seats.
But what has increased the possibility of ‘game’ in NDA is that JDU is fielding its own candidates on the seats claimed by Chirag Paswan. Among these five seats, Sonbarsa, Morwa, Ekma, and Rajgir are prominent. According to sources, JDU has also announced its candidate for Chirag Paswan’s home constituency Alauli. Chirag Paswan is continuously demanding 36 to 40 seats, which also includes seats like Mehnar (which is currently the seat of JDU state president Umesh Kushwaha) and Matihani (which was won by LJP in 2020, but later the MLA joined JDU). JDU fielding candidates on these ‘disputed seats’ clearly shows that Nitish Kumar’s party is not ready to let its influence diminish in the NDA. This ‘JDU-LJP (Ram Vilas) seat dispute’ has now come out in the open.
Turmoil in the internal equations of NDA:
With the release of this first list, the ‘tussle over seat sharing’ in the NDA has intensified. Earlier it was reported that BJP and JDU will contest elections on 101-101 seats, and Chirag Paswan’s party will get 29 seats, while Rashtriya Lok Morcha (RLM) and Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) will be given 6 seats each. But, this list of JDU seems to raise questions on these agreements. This shows that the fight for supremacy continues within the ‘Bihar NDA alliance’.
Dissatisfaction is visible within JDU itself regarding ticket distribution. Some leaders had filed nominations even before the party’s official list came out, and one MP even offered to resign, complaining about not being able to meet Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. It seems that ‘JDU’s internal disputes in Bihar’ have not calmed down yet. Many JDU leaders are also not happy with the fact that BJP has now come to an equal position in the alliance, whereas earlier JDU was in the role of ‘elder brother’.
Overall, NDA’s path in ‘Bihar Assembly Elections 2025’ does not look easy. This first list of JDU can increase the ‘tension on Nitish-Chirag seats’ and can cause major political turmoil in the alliance before the upcoming elections.