United Or Untied? Bihar Mahagathbandhan Struggles With Seat Pact Ahead Of Oct 17 Nomination Deadline

Last Updated:October 16, 2025, 20:38 IST

The heart of the Mahagathbandhan's crisis lies in the competing and seemingly non-negotiable demands of the RJD and the Congress

The primary friction point is the total number of seats to be allocated to the Congress. File pic/PTI

With the crucial first phase of nominations for the Bihar assembly elections already underway, the opposition Mahagathbandhan (Grand Alliance) finds itself in a precarious position. The inability of its two largest constituents—the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Indian National Congress—to finalise a consensus on seat-sharing has cast a darkening shadow of uncertainty over the unity and electoral prospects of the entire coalition. This significant delay, even as the nomination deadline for the first phase rapidly approaches on October 17, stands in stark contrast to the ruling NDA, which, despite its own internal differences, has managed to officially announce its seat matrix.

The heart of the Mahagathbandhan’s crisis lies in the competing and seemingly non-negotiable demands of the RJD and the Congress. The 243-member Bihar assembly requires a well-oiled, united strategy to effectively challenge the Janata Dal (United)-Bharatiya Janata Party-led NDA, but the current state of flux suggests a grand alliance battling its own arithmetic.

The Numbers Game: Poor Strike Rate vs National Status

The primary friction point is the total number of seats to be allocated to the Congress. Citing its performance in the 2020 assembly elections, the RJD—which emerged as the single largest party with 75 seats—is reportedly firm on restricting the Congress to a smaller share. The RJD’s current offer is said to hover around 55 to 58 seats.

The Congress, however, is insistent on contesting a number closer to the 70 seats it fought in 2020. The party is reportedly demanding no less than 61-65 seats, arguing for its national status and historical footprint in the state. This demand is despite the fact that in 2020, the Congress managed to secure only 19 victories out of the 70 seats it contested, a poor strike rate that the RJD camp is using as leverage in the current negotiations. The RJD, which is positioning its leader Tejashwi Yadav as the chief ministerial face, is unwilling to bring down its own share significantly below 130 seats, citing the poor return on investment offered by its national partner in the previous election.

The Small Allies and the Nomination Hurdle

The protracted deadlock has ripple effects across the entire opposition coalition, leaving smaller allies increasingly restless and forced to move ahead unilaterally.

Left Parties: Facing the acute pressure of the nomination deadline, parties like the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation and the Communist Party of India (CPI) have begun announcing and fielding their candidates on seats cleared in previous, informal talks. CPI(ML) has announced candidates for 18 seats, while CPI has also released a list of its first set of candidates, putting further pressure on the RJD and Congress to resolve their dispute over overlapping constituencies.

VIP: Mukesh Sahani’s Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP) is also reportedly uneasy, as the limited seat pool shrinks further. Sahani, whose party is a crucial face for the Mallah community, has had to temper his initial high demands, with RJD offering a significantly lower number.

The delay is severely impacting ground-level preparations. While the NDA announced its complete seat-sharing arrangement on Sunday—with BJP and JD(U) contesting 101 seats each, and smaller allies filling the rest—the Mahagathbandhan’s candidates remain in limbo, unsure of their official party symbols or even their constituency.

High-Level Talks and Internal Drama

Numerous meetings in New Delhi between senior Congress leaders, including its central leadership, and Tejashwi Yadav have failed to yield a final agreement. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and party leader Rahul Gandhi held seat-sharing talks with the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) on Thursday. Congress leaders also spoke to RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav.

The internal drama escalated when the RJD patriarch was reported to have jumped the gun by unilaterally allocating the party symbols to several loyalists in Patna, even while Tejashwi was engaged in delicate negotiations in Delhi. Though the move was reportedly reversed later, it revealed the deep anxiety and lack of coordinated strategy at the highest levels of the RJD, and further miffed the Congress.

The continued impasse over specific contentious seats—such as Bachhwara (where Congress wants to field its former MLA’s son against a CPI candidate the RJD supports) and Narkatiaganj—underscores that the rift is not just about numbers but also about the dominance and control over winnable constituencies.

The looming deadline for the first phase of nominations means that a failure to announce a joint formula within the next 24-48 hours could lead to an electoral free-for-all, resulting in “friendly contests" between alliance partners, a scenario that would severely erode the credibility of the Mahagathbandhan and hand a significant psychological and strategic advantage to the NDA. The ultimate test for the opposition coalition will be whether they can transform their collective ambition into a cohesive electoral arithmetic before time runs out.

Pathikrit Sen Gupta

Pathikrit Sen Gupta is a Senior Associate Editor with News18.com and likes to cut a long story short. He writes sporadically on Politics, Sports, Global Affairs, Space, Entertainment, And Food. He trawls X via ...Read More

Pathikrit Sen Gupta is a Senior Associate Editor with News18.com and likes to cut a long story short. He writes sporadically on Politics, Sports, Global Affairs, Space, Entertainment, And Food. He trawls X via ...

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News politics United Or Untied? Bihar Mahagathbandhan Struggles With Seat Pact Ahead Of Oct 17 Nomination Deadline

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