Bihar Elections 2020: Both NDA and Mahagathbandhan unveil their seat sharing plans
As the election dates for Bihar approach, both NDA and the mahagathbandhan have unveiled their seat sharing plan for the Bihar Assembly Elections, 2020. The mahagathbandhan or the grand alliance, with the promise of change declared its seat sharing plan on October 3 and the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) announced its seat sharing formula on Tuesday.
In the mahagathbandhan, RJD will be contesting polls on 144 seats, Congress 70 seats, Communist Party of India (Marxist- Leninist) 19 seats, Communist Party of India six seats, and Communist Party of India (Marxist) four seats. Other two allies, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, and Vikasheel Insan Party will be accommodated by RJD in its 144 seat quota. The mahagathbandhan is led by RJD’s Tejashvi Yadav who is also the main face of the alliance.
Soon after the announcement, Vikasheel Insan Party (VIP)’s leader alleged that he was earlier offered the post of Deputy Chief Minister and his party 25 seats but now he has been 'backstabbed'. This resulted in chaos as VIP supporters started chanting slogans against Tejashvi Yadav and his elder brother Tej Pratap Yadav. The mahagathbandhan will be fighting on Nitish Kumar’s failed policies and inadequate handling of the pandemic, the migrant labour crisis, and the floods in the state.
The NDA also announced its seat sharing plan on Tuesday. Out of 243 seats, BJP has been allotted 121 seats and JDU 122 seats. JDU from its quota of 122 seats, has given seven seats to Jitan Ram Manjhi’s Hindustan Awam Morcha (HAM). It should be noted that now that the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) has walked out of NDA, it has greatly influenced the seat sharing arithmetic.
LJP leader Chirag Paswan had cited ideological differences with JDU over walking out of NDA and has been appealing to the people of Bihar to not vote for JDU, assuring them that BJP-LJP will be forming the government in Bihar.
The face of NDA in Bihar, Nitish Kumar has been campaigning using Prime Minister Modi’s name. This is perhaps because of the Chief Minister’s recent failures which are being shadowed by the towering image of Prime Minister Modi who has a good popularity in the state.
The Bihar elections will be the first large scale elections in the country after the pandemic. The polls will be conducted in three phases, starting from October 28th and the results will be declared on November 10th.