BJP catches up with JD(U) in Bihar seat-sharing arrangement

Both get 101 seats. Other NDA allies welcome formula. But what does this mean for JD(U)’s relevance in 2025? Archis Mohan and Sanjeeb Mukherjee report

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi with BJP President J P Nadda at the party's Central Election Committee in New Delhi on Sunday

(PHOTO: X/BJP BIHAR)

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.