Bihar elections: Grand Alliance in disarray as allies clash on eight seats

Patna:  Even after the first round of nominations is over, the Grand Alliance in Bihar has failed to reach a consensus on seat sharing. As a result, eight candidates from the alliance are now locked in direct contests against each other, exposing deep fissures within the opposition bloc.

The nomination process for the first phase of the 2025 Bihar Assembly elections concluded on Friday, but the Grand Alliance — comprising the RJD, Congress, CPI, CPI-ML, CPIM, and VIP — has yet to formally announce its seat-sharing arrangement.

Despite the nomination deadline passing, there is still no clarity on how many seats each constituent party will contest.

Internal disagreements have marred the alliance’s coordination.

So far, the Congress has released a list of 48 candidates, while the CPI(ML) has announced 18 candidates.

However, the lack of coordination has led to a situation where the allies are competing against one another in the very first phase of the election.

In at least eight constituencies, Grand Alliance partners have fielded rival candidates.

The RJD has given a ticket to Shivani Shukla, daughter of strongman Munna Shukla, from Lalganj.

Shivani, accompanied by her mother Annu Shukla, filed her nomination soon after receiving the party symbol.

However, the Congress has also fielded Aditya Kumar Raja from the same seat, setting up a direct intra-alliance clash in Lalganj.

Apart from Lalganj, RJD’s Ajay Kushwaha is contesting against Congress’s Sanjeev Kumar in Vaishali.

In Tarapur, RJD’s Arun Shah is contesting against VIP’s Sakaldev Bind.

In Bachhwara (Begusarai), CPI’s Awadhesh Rai is competing against Congress’s Garib Das.

On Gaura Bauram, RJD’s Afzal Ali is contesting against VIP’s Santosh Sahani.

In Rajapakad, CPI’s Mohit Paswan is contesting against Congress’s Pratima Das.

In Rosera, CPI’s Laxman Paswan is contesting against Congress’s B.K. Ravi and one more seat where the Grand Alliance constituent partners are contesting against each other.

Instead of taking on the NDA, the Grand Alliance partners appear to be fighting among themselves, sending a confusing message to their supporters and potentially weakening their electoral prospects.

For the past 10 days, intense discussions have taken place from Patna to Delhi over the seat-sharing formula.

Rahul Gandhi and Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge reportedly tried to placate several unhappy leaders, but their efforts failed to yield any concrete outcome.

As the deadline approached, the situation turned chaotic — parties began distributing election symbols without official announcements, and candidates rushed to file nominations at the last minute.

–IANS