Chirag Paswan and Nitish Kumar
A year is left for the Bihar Assembly elections, but politics is intensifying. The morale of Chirag Paswan’s party LJP is high as it has a 100% strike rate in Bihar as it contests the 2024 Lok Sabha elections with the NDA. In this context, the political chessboard for the 2025 Bihar elections has begun to be laid out, with everyone flexing their muscles in the 243 assembly seats. The question is, despite the NDA, is Chirag Paswan ready to contest in 2025 like he was in 2022, or are there some new political stakes?
Arun Bharti, Chirag Paswan’s brother-in-law and BJP MP from Jammuj, issued a statement in Aurangabad saying that his party will contest Bihar with all its strength in 2025 Parliamentary elections. The party is preparing for all 243 seats. The BJP managed to win all five Lok Sabha seats in Bihar. He said his party also had a 100% victory rate in the Jharkhand elections. Led by Chirag Paswan, the party is preparing for the assembly elections to all 243 seats under the ‘Nav Sankalp Abhiyan’.
Chirag launches political strategy
Chirag Paswan’s party is an important part of the new development agenda led by the Bharatiya Janata Party. The LJP (R) is listed as an ally of the Modi government at the Center and the Nitesh government in Bihar. Chirag Paswan contests 2024 Bihar Lok Sabha elections with NDA, including BJP, JDU and Jitan Ram Manjhi political parties. It is unclear whether all NDA partners will fight together in the 2025 parliament, nor has any seat-sharing formula been revealed. In this situation, Chirag Paswan started his political strategy to initiate election preparations in all seats.
Chirag spoils Nitish’s game
Chirag Paswan was a member of the NDA in 2019 but in 2020, he entered the electoral fray alone after not getting the required seat-sharing seat. In the 2020 Assembly elections, Chirag Paswan’s candidate won 143 seats in Bihar. In this case, although the Liberal Party won only one seat, it spoiled the political game of the Nitish Kumar-led United Democratic Alliance. The JDU won only 43 seats, making it the third party. As a result, his political standing in the NDA declined.
Bihar has at least 120 seats in the 2020 assembly elections, with Chirag Paswan’s party proving to be a “vote killer” in the region, according to data from Ashoka University’s Trivedi Center for Political Data. The BJP ranks third in Bihar with 54 seats. If we add the votes of the Liberal Party to the second place candidate, it will get more votes than the winning party. The JDU had to lose in 25 seats due to the influence of the LJP, while the BJP lost only one seat.
Meanwhile, the RJD lost 12 seats, the Congress lost 10 seats and the Left Party lost two seats due to Chirag Paswan-led LJP. Apart from this, Mukesh Sahni’s party was shocked in four seats. Nitish Kumar has been complaining about the losses he suffered because of Chirag Paswan. Therefore, JDU maintains an aggressive attitude towards Chirag Paswan, but in the 2024 elections, the BJP strives to create a political balance between JDU and Chirag.
What is Chirag Paswan’s strategy?
Chirag Paswan’s strategy is to enhance his political bargaining power by starting preparations for the 2025 assembly elections in all seats. The format of the NDA and the seat allocation formula for the assembly elections are yet to be finalized and hence Chirag has started his political maneuvers so that he can get maximum seats to his account in the seat allocation. That is why the examples of 100% victory of the BJP in Bihar and Jharkhand were given.
