Bihar elections: Jitan Ram Manjhi and Chirag Paswan hold firm on seat-sharing demand

Disagreements over seat-sharing among the NDA’s allies in Bihar have emerged, although the Bharatiya Janata Party – which held a key meeting on the issue on Wednesday (October 8) – has maintained that the alliance remains united.

Union Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi said he was “requesting, not demanding” that his Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) party be allocated a “respectable number” of seats, warning that his party could otherwise skip the upcoming assembly elections.

“It will be a humiliation for me and my party if we do not get at least 15 seats. If we contest 15, we can win 8-9 and become a recognized party,” said Manjhi, whose HAM remains unknown even after a decade of its formation. He added: “If we don’t get a respectable share, we may not contest, but we will still work for the NDA.”

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Meanwhile, another constituent of the NDA – Chirag Paswan’s Lok Janshakti (Ram Vilas) Party – which had earlier agreed to contest around 20-22 seats, is now demanding at least 25 more. Senior LJP (RV) leaders told PTI that the party deserves around 45 seats.

Paswan, who visited his late father Ram Vilas Paswan’s birthplace in Khagaria on Wednesday, said, “Things will be finalized very soon.”

The legislative elections in Bihar will take place on November 6 and 11, with counting scheduled for November 14.

As the BJP election committee met in Patna to finalize seat sharing and candidate lists, senior leaders, including Union ministers Dharmendra Pradhan and Vinod Tawde, held discussions with state leaders and their allies, including Manjhi.

In the 2020 parliamentary elections, Paswan’s party broke away from the NDA and fought independently – winning a single seat but inflicting heavy losses on the JD(U), which ended with its worst tally in 20 years with 43 seats.