The Bharatiya Janata Party will contest 17 out of the 40 seats Lok Sabha seats in Bihar and the Janata Dal (United), its biggest ally in the state, is set to fight from 16 seats in the upcoming elections, the National Democratic Alliance announced on Monday.
It also said that the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) led by Chirag Paswan will fight from five seats, and the Hindustani Awam Morcha and the Rashtriya Lok Morcha will contest one seat each.
The announcement on the seat-sharing arrangement was made by BJP National General Secretary Vinod Tawde, along with Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary, Janata Dal (United) General Secretary Sanjay Jha, Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) leader Raju Tiwari and Hindustani Awam Morcha leader Rajneesh Kumar at the BJP’s headquarters in New Delhi.
The 2024 Lok Sabha elections will be held in seven phases from April 19 to June 1, the Election Commission announced on Saturday. The results will be announced on June 4.
The elections in Bihar will be conducted in seven phases.
On Monday, Tawde also said that the BJP would fight from West Champaran, East Champaran, Aurangabad, Madhubani, Araria, Darbhanga, Muzzafarpur, Maharajganj, Saran, Ujiarpur, Begusarai, Nawada, Patna Sahib, Patiliputra, Ara, Buxar and Sasaram.
The Janata Dal (United) is set to contest from Valmikinagar, Sitamarhi, Jhanjharpur, Supaul, Kishanganj, Katihar, Purnia, Madhepura, Gopalganj, Siwan, Bhagalpur, Banka, Munger, Nalanda, Jehanabad and Sheohar.
The Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) has agreed to fight from Vaishali, Hajipur, Samastipur, Khagaria and Jamui. The Hindustani Awam Morcha will contest from Gaya and the Rashtriya Lok Morcha from Karakat.
“Although the parties in the National Democratic Alliance will fight on their respective symbols, we are fighting together,” Tawde said. “All the parties will fight with all their might,” he added.
The BJP’s national general secretary said that the alliance was set to “sweep all 40 seats”.
In 2019, the National Democratic Alliance won 39 out of the 40 Lok Sabha seats. The BJP won all 17 it contested and the Janata Dal (United) had won 16 seats.
In January, the Janata Dal (United), led by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, returned to an alliance with the BJP in Bihar.
On January 28, Kumar had resigned from the chief minister post and quit the Mahagathbandhan coalition that also comprised the Lalu Prasad Yadav-led Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Congress. He took oath as Bihar’s chief minister once again, for the ninth time, just hours later with the support of the BJP.
Under Kumar, the Janata Dal (United) had earlier allied with the BJP on two occasions, only to break ties later. The chief minister first broke the alliance with the BJP in 2013 after it projected Narendra Modi as its prime ministerial candidate for the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.
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