Bihar Elections: INDIA bloc hit by last-minute JMM exit — where do Congress, RJD and others stand as polling nears?

Bihar Elections: The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) released its list of 143 candidates for the upcoming Bihar assembly elections on Monday. The development effectively ended the prolonged seat-sharing negotiations within the opposition's ‘Mahagathbandhan’ or the 'Grand' alliance.

The announcement of names of candidates from Rashtriya Janata Dal – the INDIA bloc's largest alliance partner – comes without any official announcement of seats shared between the parties.

And as things stand within the alliance, the RJD is contesting 143, Congress 61, CPI ML 20 and the remaining constituencies in the 243-seat contest are likely to go to Mukesh Sahani's VIP, as per an informal arrangement.

‘Political Conspiracy’: JMM withdraws

The opposition alliance suffered a blow as the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) formally withdrew from the elections at the last minute on Monday, the last day of filing nominations for the second phase of voting. The announcement by JMM came days after the Jharkhand’s ruling party announced its six candidates for the Bihar polls

The party has accused its INDIA bloc partners the RJD and the Congress of a "political conspiracy" that has led to it being deprived from seats as part of the Mahagathbandhan coalition in Bihar.

Senior JMM leader Sudivya Kumar said his party will review the alliance in Jharkhand with the Congress and RJD, and give a befitting reply to the "snub."

"The RJD and the Congress are responsible for depriving JMM from contesting the election as part of a political conspiracy. JMM will give a befitting reply to this, and review its alliance with RJD and Congress,” Kumar told reporters on Monday.

In Bihar election 2020, too, the JMM was assured of three seats by the RJD and Congress, but later they divided the seats among themselves, deceiving us, said Kumar who is also a minister in Hemant Soren-led Jharkhand government.

“In last year's Jharkhand polls, the JMM left a respectable number of seats for the Congress, RJD and the Left, but the party was humiliated again in the 2025 Bihar election," Kumar said.

Elections to 243 seats of the Bihar assembly will be held on November 6 and November 11. The results will be announced on November 14.

The Jharkhand minister Kumar said that a meeting regarding seat sharing was held on October 7 in Patna which he and his his colleague Vinod Pandey attended. “From October 7 to October 20, the RJD engaged in manipulation, and the Congress supported them in this behavior,” he said.

All is not well within INDIA bloc

Clearly, all is not well within the opposition INDIA bloc in poll-bound Bihar. The Congress and the Left were engaged in high-level talks until last moment to resolve the issue that arose due to multiple nominations filed in at least 11 contentious seas, according to media reports.

One of the key points of contention among the allies remained the multiple nominations filed by leaders of the alliance partners on Lalganj, Vaishali, Rajapakar, Rosera, Biharsharif, Bachhwara, Tarapur, Kahalgaon, Chainpur, Gaura Bauram and Kargahar, according to a report in Hindustan Times.

NDA vs INDIA bloc

The Bihar Elections 2025 is expected to be a contest between the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and the Mahagathbandhan.

The NDA includes the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Janata Dal (United), the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas), the Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) and the Rashtriya Lok Morcha.

The Mahagathbandhan led by the RJD also included the Congress party, the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) (CPI-ML) led by Deepankar Bhattacharya, the Communist Party of India (CPI), the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPM), and Mukesh Sahani's Vikasheel Insaan Party (VIP).

Prashant Kishor's Jan Suraaj is also contesting on all 243 seats of the state in the upcoming two-phase voting.

‘No such thing called friendly fights’: Chirag

Union Minister and Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) chief Chirag Paswan slammed the opposition Mahagathbandhan saying that there is no such thing called ‘friendly’ fights.

Paswan said the dispute within the INDIA bloc over seat sharing will benefit National Democratic Alliance (NDA) candidates on many seats in upcoming Bihar polls. Paswan, who leads the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas), is part of the NDA. His party is contesting 29 seats in the upcoming Bihar election.

Speaking to the reporters in Patna about the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Congress fighting ‘friendly’ contests, Paswan said, "There is nothing called as friendly fight, either you are friends or fighting with each other. The friendly conflict does not happen in politics; this is wrong terminology."

For now, the nominations have ended for both phases. In case there is change in any candidate, there is option of withdrawing the nomination for the second phase by Thursday, October 23.

(With agency inputs)