NDA's election plan for Bihar: BJP and JD(U) get 101 seats each

Both get 101 seats. Other NDA allies welcome formula. PM announces farm projects worth ₹35,000 cr on JP's birth anniversary

The Nitish Kumar-led Janata Dal (United) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will contest an equal number of seats in the forthcoming Bihar Assembly polls — something which will be for the first time since they formed an alliance — evidence of the Hindutva party’s growing electoral footprint and influence in the state over the last decade and the gradual decline of the JD(U).

 

On Sunday evening, Dharmendra Pradhan, Union minister and in charge of the BJP’s poll affairs in Bihar, announced that the BJP and the JD(U) will contest 101 seats each in the elections, while the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas), led by Union minister Chirag Paswan, will field candidates in 29 seats.

 

In a post on X after the meeting of the BJP’s Central Election Committee, the meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other senior leaders attended, Pradhan said the Union minister Jitan Ram Manjhi-led Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) and Upendra Kushwaha-led Rashtriya Lok Morcha would field their candidates in six seats each.

 

Until now, the JD(U) played the senior partner in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in Bihar, contesting more seats than the BJP in Assembly polls. Until the 2009 Lok Sabha polls, of the 40 Lok Sabha seats, the JD(U) contested (25 seats) more seats than the BJP (15) in Bihar. The two had parted ways before the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, and in 2019 they contested an equal number of seats (17 each). It changed in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, with the BJP contesting 17 and JD(U) 16 seats.

 

Now, with Sunday’s announcement, the JD(U) is no longer the senior partner even for the Assembly polls in terms of the seats contested. In the 2020 Assembly polls, the JD(U) performed poorly, winning 43 of the 115 seats it contested as part of the NDA. The JD(U)’s poor performance in terms of the seats won was said to be on account of the LJP, which contested 135 seats, and fielded its candidates against the JD(U), but not against the BJP. But in the 2020 Assembly polls and for the first time whenever the two have allies, the JD(U)’s vote share (15.39 per cent) was less than that of the BJP’s (19.46 per cent).

 

In his post on X, Pradhan said all the constituents of the NDA concluded the seat-distribution exercise in a cordial manner. “Leaders and workers of all NDA parties welcome the (seat-sharing formula) with happiness. Bihar is ready for another NDA government,” Pradhan said.

 

Paswan, who demanded 30-35 seats and managed to secure 29, also welcomed the seat-sharing formula.

 

In the 2020 Assembly polls, Paswan’s party won one seat but secured a healthy 5.66 per cent vote share.

 

Manjhi, who had demanded 15 seats, posted on X that his loyalty lay with the Prime Minister till his “last breath”.

 

The 243-member Bihar Assembly will go to the polls in two phases on November 6 and 11, and the counting of votes has been scheduled for November 14.

 

In the afternoon, Modi said on X he would begin his campaign in Bihar with an interactive session with BJP workers on Wednesday. The dozen Union Cabinet meetings that he has chaired since May have approved projects related to Bihar, including expanding railway lines and road networks in the state.

 

On Saturday, on the birth anniversary of Jayaprakash Narayan (JP), socialist leader and an icon of Bihar politics, Modi launched a slew of programmes. Modi said JP was the voice of rural India, whose life was dedicated to the welfare of farmers and the poor.

 

He launched the PM Dhan Dhanya Krishi Yojana and the Pulses Self-Reliance Mission.

 

“These two schemes will transform the fortunes of millions of farmers in India. The Government of India will spend more than ₹35,000 crore on these schemes,” the PM said.

 

In a series of posts, Modi recalled JP’s contribution to strengthening India’s democracy, and inspired mass movements, notably in Bihar and Gujarat, which led to a sociopolitical awakening across India.

 

Both Bihar Chief Minister Kumar, and his former associate and current rival, Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Lalu Prasad, were products of the JP movement of 1973-74 in Bihar, while Modi also said that he was inspired by JP’s call of ‘Sampoorna Kranti’, or total revolution, and participated in the Navnirman movement in Gujarat.  

 

On September 26, Modi launched the Bihar’s chief minister’s women employment scheme, transferring ₹10,000 to the bank accounts of 7.5 million women. An analysis of the big Cabinet decisions taken in the past few months on infrastructure has had Bihar in focus. These include the ₹3,822 crore Sahebganj-Areraj-Bettiah National Highway Project; doubling the Bakhtiyarpur-Rajgir-Tilaiya Single railway line section (104 km), with an estimated cost of ₹2,192 crore; doubling the Bhagalpur-Dumka-Rampurhat single railway line worth ₹3,169 crore; and constructing the four-lane greenfield access-controlled Mokama-Munger section of the Buxar-Bhagalpur High-Speed Corridor, worth ₹4,447 crore.

 

Other projects approved by the Union Cabinet include the Bhagalpur-Jamalpur third line, worth ₹1,156 crore, and the Aluabari Road-New Jalpaiguri third and fourth line (57 km) with an estimated cost of ₹1,786 crore.