With the seat-sharing arrangement finalized within the NDA alliance for the upcoming Bihar Assembly elections, all coalition partners have begun announcing their respective candidates. Upendra Kushwaha’s party, the Rashtriya Lok Morcha (RLM), which has been allotted six seats under the NDA arrangement, released its first list of candidates on Wednesday night.
The announcement was made under the direction of RLM’s National President, former Union Minister and Rajya Sabha MP Upendra Kushwaha, following detailed discussions with alliance partners in the Rashtriya Janataitik Gathbandhan.
In an official press statement signed by Subhash Chandravanshi, the State General Secretary of RLM (Bihar Pradesh), the party declared candidates for six assembly constituencies.
According to the list, Madhav Anand has been nominated from the Madhubani constituency, Prashant Kumar Pankaj from Ujiarpur, Snehlata, wife of Upendra Kushwaha, from Sasaram, and Alok Kumar Singh from Dinara. Two constituencies — Bajpatti in Sitamarhi district and Paroo in Muzaffarpur district — have been kept vacant for now, with the party expected to announce candidates for these seats at a later date.
As per the NDA’s seat-sharing agreement, the BJP and JD(U) will contest on 101 seats each, while Chirag Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) has been allotted 29 seats. Both Rashtriya Lok Morcha (RLM) and Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) will contest on six seats each.
Elections for Bihar’s 243-member assembly will be held in two phases — on November 6 and November 11, with counting scheduled for November 14.
In the 2020 assembly elections, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s JD(U) contested 115 seats, while the BJP fought on 110 seats and Paswan’s party went solo. This election marks the first time that JD(U) will contest on fewer seats than the BJP in a Bihar Assembly election.
The RLM’s announcement signals the start of the party’s formal campaign under the NDA banner, as the alliance gears up for a high-stakes electoral battle in November.