Bihar seat-sharing talks in final stages, Nitish Kumar ‘unilaterally’ names first candidate, BJP plays it down

“We have been working very hard and achieved several landmarks of development. It is the job of the people to support us and make Nirala win from here,” the CM said, pointing towards Nirala, who lost to the Congress’s Vishwanath Ram in the 2020 Assembly polls.

Nirala, 51, started his political career in the mid-1990s. He has twice served as a minister in Bihar. While he handled the SC-ST portfolio between 2014 and 2017, he was given the transport department between 2017 and 2020.

In 2020, the JD(U) and BJP contested 115 and 110 constituencies. respectively, of which the JD(U) gave seven seats to the Jitan Ram Manjhi-led Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) while the BJP parted with 11 seats to Mukesh Sahani’s Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP). The Lok Janshakti Party (LJP), then united, had contested the elections alone. Despite the JD(U) winning only 43 seats as against the BJP’s 74, it has been hinting that it wants to stick to the 2020 seat-sharing formula and contest more seats than its ally in the coming polls.

Both allies seemed to downplay Nitish’s announcement with the BJP saying that the seat has been traditionally fought by its ally and that there were “no issues” with Nirala’s candidature while JD(U) chief spokesperson Neeraj Kumar said “not much should be read into it”.

“We have been contesting from Rajpur and Nirala has represented the constituency twice before losing the 2020 polls. He is our candidate for the upcoming polls. Nitish, who has been interacting with party workers from Rajpur, found it befitting to announce Nirala’s candidature,” the JD(U) leader told The Indian Express.

Referring to Nitish as the “leader of the NDA,” BJP spokesperson Manoj Sharma said, “He (Nitish) used his prerogative to announce Nirala’s candidature from a seat that the JD(U) has traditionally been contested by the party. It is only a matter of days that the seat-sharing talks will be held.”

Sources said the NDA allies were likely to meet and finalise seat-sharing anytime after the September 9 vice-presidential elections. While the JD(U) and BJP have agreed to contest equal number of seats, allies such as the Chirag Paswan-led Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas), HAM (S) and Upendra Kushwaha’s Rashtiya Lok Morcha (RLM) have been engaging in political posturing to ensure more seats for themselves.