Seat sharing final in Bihar, JDU will contest on 16 seats

New Delhi: The long-standing seat sharing dispute in Bihar's NDA has been resolved, with Jitan Ram Manjhi's party HAM receiving one seat, Upendra Kushwaha's RLM one, Pashupati Paras one seat in Samastipur, and Chirag Paswan four seats, including Hajipur. Nitish Kumar's party, JDU, can contest elections for 16 seats. Notably, a meeting was also held today at BJP National President JP Nadda's residence to discuss seat sharing with Paswan and Mangal Pandey.

According to reports, the BJP plans to give Chirag Paswan the Hajipur seat. However, Pashupati Paras is an MP in Hajipur. He had long planned to contest for office from the Hajipur seat. At the same time, Chirag Paswan was also staking his claim in Hajipur. He stated that he is Ram Vilas Paswan's political heir and hence deserves the Hajipur seat in the alliance. As a result, enmity started between uncle and nephew (Pashupati Paras and Chirag Paswan). Pashupati Paras stated that Ram Vilas Paswan made him the candidate for the Hajipur seat when he was still alive; hence, he is the true owner of the Hajipur seat.

Chirag Paswan said on X, "As members of the NDA, we finalized the seat sharing in Bihar for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections today in a meeting with BJP national JP Nadda." This information will be provided when the appropriate time comes.

Paswan further said, the seat distribution formula has been finalized in the NDA. Our alliance will win 400 seats in the Lok Sabha elections. He said that I do not have a seat in anyone's quota. We will hoist the flag of victory on all 40 seats in Bihar. Taking a jibe at his uncle Pashupati Paras, Chirag said that he does not know whether he is in the alliance or not. It was also said that the seats would be announced at the appropriate time.