With the nomination for the second phase of the crucial Bihar assembly elections ending on Monday, both the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and the opposition Mahagathbandhan have intensified their preparations. However, the Mahagathbandhan have failed to arrive on a consensus over seat-sharing and the grand alliance partners will be in a direct contest on multiple constituencies.
The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), the Congress, the Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP), and the Communist Party of India (CPI) will lock-horns against each other on 12 constituencies, including Vaishali, Sultanganj and Bachhwara. However, the uncertainty may end on October 23, which is the last date for withdrawal of candidates for the second phase.
What are the 12 seats on which Mahagathbandhan partners would be fighting against each other?
- Bachhwara: Abdesh Kumar Rai (Communist Party of India) vs Shiv Prakash Garib Das (Congress)
- Narkatiaganj: Deepak Yadav (Rashtriya Janata Dal) vs Shashwat Kedar Pandey (Congress)
- Babubarhi: Bindu Gulab Yadav (Vikassheel Insaan Party) vs Arun Kumar Singh Kushwaha (Rashtriya Janata Dal)
- Vaishali: Sanjeev Singh (Congress) vs Ajay Kumar Kushwaha (Rashtriya Janata Dal)
- Raja Pakar: Pratima Kumari Das (Congress) vs Mohit Paswan (Communist Party of India)
- Kahalgaon: Rajnish Bharti (Rashtriya Janata Dal) vs Praveen Singh Kushwaha (Congress)
- Bihar Sharif: Omair Khan (Congress) vs Shiv Kumar Yadav (Communist Party of India)
- Sikandra: Vinod Kumar Chaudhary (Congress) vs Uday Narain Choudhary (Rashtriya Janata Dal)
- Chainpur: Bal Govind Bind (Vikassheel Insaan Party) vs Brij Kishore Bind (Rashtriya Janata Dal)
- Sultanganj: Lalan Kumar (Congress) vs Chandan Kumar Sinha (Rashtriya Janata Dal)
- Kargahar: Santosh Kumar Mishra (Congress) vs Mahendra Prasad Gupta (Communist Party of India)
- Warsaliganj: Anita Devi Mahato (Rashtriya Janata Dal) vs Satish Kumar (Congress)
Why Mahagathbandhan partners failed to seal a seat-sharing deal?
Reportedly, Congress had demanded at least 70 seats, but the RJD offered it between 52 and 55 seats, causing discord between the two alliance partners. Similarly, the Left parties also demanded 40 seats for them, citing their performance in the 2020 assembly elections in Bihar, when the Communist Party of India (ML) Liberation, CPI and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) won 12, two and two seats, respectively.
Mukesh Sahani's VIP had also demanded 40 seats, but later settled for 15 seats. The VIP has also been promised the position of deputy chief minister if the alliance wins the 2025 Bihar elections.
With the Mahagathbandhan partners fielding candidates against each other on 12 seats, it is expected that it would help the ruling NDA as it would split the opposition vote.
NDA's dig at Mahagathbandhan
The NDA has taken a dig at the Mahagathbandhan over its seat-sharing deadlock, with Union Minister and Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) chief Chirag Paswan saying that there is no such thing as a 'friendly fight' and the grand alliance has given the ruling alliance a 'walkover' even on many seats which seemed challenging to them.
"I have never seen such a thing in my life that such a big alliance is on the verge of ruins," Paswan said. "If the people of mahagathbandhan are in this delusion that they can field multiple candidates from the same seat, then they should know that there's no such thing as a 'friendly fight'."
