Why several BJP seats are on JD(U) wish list for Bihar Assembly elections

JD(U) insiders said the party did not want to base the seat-sharing talks on the outcome of the elections in 2020 as it was an outlier. “The 2020 Assembly polls were an aberration for us as Chirag Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party and Upendra Kushwaha’s Rashtriya Lok Samta Party (RLSP) played spoilsport for us. While Chirag did maximum damage to us by cutting votes, Kushwaha hurt us in the Shahabad area of Bhojpur, Buxar, Rohtas, and Kaimur.”

The JD(U) contested 115 seats but won only 43 seats in 2020, with BJP outperforming it by winning 74 seats (out of the 110 seats it contested). Now, with both Paswan and Kushwaha back in the National Democratic Alliance, the JD(U) hopes for a much better show with a better strike rate because of its allies’ votes.

“Based on our feedback from panchayat level workers, we are looking for some seats from Champaran, Muzaffarpur, and a few other North Bihar seats, which is otherwise a BJP stronghold. We can also swap seats. There are about 10 sitting BJP seats in our list of preferred seats and 10 other seats the BJP lost to the RJD.”

The JD(U) wants fewer seats in the Shahabad and Magadh (Gaya, Jehanabad, and Aurangabad) regions because there it anticipates tough competition from the Mahagatbandhan parties of RJD and CPI(ML) Liberation and even the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).

“NDA’s poor show in 2020 Assembly polls in these regions continued in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. While the BJP lost the Pataliputra, Aurangabad, and Buxar Lok Sabha seats to the RJD, it lost Arrah to the CPI(ML). The B JP also lost Sasaram to the Congress, while Upendra Kushwaha lost to the CPI(ML) L. The JD(U) lost Jehanabad to the RJD,” said a leader from Nitish Kumar’s party. The JD(U) wants the BJP to fight multiple-corner contests in these regions and for itself wants the seats where it had done well in 2010.

However, the BJP said it was too early to discuss seat-sharing. “It is too early to discuss seat sharing, but all NDA allies have been working on the ground and can prepare lists. Each seat is discussed during the NDA’s seat-sharing talks. Every party wants to excel and there is nothing wrong with it. As for our poor showing in Shahabad and Magadh in 2020 and 2024, we proved it wrong by winning all four Assembly bypolls last November,” said BJP spokesperson Manoj Sharma.

The BJP swept the bypolls, winning all four seats at stake, including the RJD bastions of Belaganj and Ramgarh. Belaganj in Gaya district was a seat that the RJD had not lost in over 34 years.