The 2025 Bihar elections are shaping up to be a fierce contest between the ruling BJP-JDU alliance and the opposition Mahagathbandhan. With multiple parties vying for seats and complex negotiations underway, the political landscape is rapidly evolving as polls loom.
A final seat-sharing announcement by the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) is expected to take another two to three days, according to a report in Hindustan Times.
After meeting alliance partners in Patna on Sunday, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Bihar election in-charge, Dharmendra Pradhan, and the party's national general secretary, Vinod Tawde, held a meeting with Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) leader and Union Minister Chirag Paswan in New Delhi on Tuesday afternoon to discuss his demands.
The Election Commission announced the poll dates on Monday. Voting will be held in two phases - November 6 and 11. Counting will be held on November 14.
The nomination for the first phase of polls will begin on October 10.
LDP is aiming to contest 45 to 54 seats in the Bihar election, whereas the BJP is willing to give 20-25 seats only, the report said. Chirag Paswan, who is a Union Minister in PM Narendra Modi's cabinet, has demanded that the party be allocated at least two Assembly seats in each of the five Lok Sabha constituencies it won.
Another meeting is scheduled to be held between Chirag Paswan and top BJP leaders in the coming days, where a final agreement on seat-sharing is expected to be reached.
Hindustani Awam Morcha-Secular (HAM-S) leader and Union minister Jitan Ram Manjhi, too, is demanding no less than 15 seats. "Every regional party has its aspirations to become a state party," said Manjhi while talking to media persons. HAM-S is also an NDA ally
However, the BJP has offered him 10 seats and had even identified seven of these seats, according to people aware of the details, the report said.
The 2025 Bihar elections is expected to be a contest between the ruling alliance of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Janata Dal United (JDU) and the Mahagathbandhan, led by the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Congress party. Election strategist-turned-politician Prashant Kishor is also in the fray with his Jan Suraaj Party.