Chirag Paswan Mocks Mahagathbandhan’s ‘Friendly Fight’, Says NDA Gets a Walkover

Union Minister Chirag Paswan, president of the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas), has unleashed a blistering attack on the Opposition's Mahagathbandhan alliance following the Rashtriya Janata Dal's (RJD) release of its candidate list. Speaking on the final day for filing nominations in the second phase of the 243-seat contest, Paswan dismissed the alliance's internal rivalries as anything but cordial, declaring, "There is nothing called 'friendly fight'. Either you are friends or you are fighting against each other."

The controversy erupted when RJD chief ministerial face Tejashwi Yadav announced candidates for 143 seats, exposing glaring overlaps with the Congress's prior declarations in four constituencies. This discord stems from unresolved seat-sharing negotiations within the Mahagathbandhan, part of the broader INDIA bloc, where allocations were tentatively set at RJD (143), Congress (55—though the party had preemptively named 60 candidates), CPI(ML) Liberation (20), CPI (6), CPM (4), and Vikassheel Insaan Party (15). Such misalignments have forced allies into direct confrontations on multiple seats, potentially fragmenting the Opposition vote and handing unopposed advantages to the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

Paswan, whose LJP(RV) is contesting 29 seats as a key NDA partner, seized the moment to predict electoral doom for his rivals. "Mahagathbandhan will pay a big price for this," he asserted, adding that the NDA was already surging ahead but now benefits from what he called a "walkover" on several battlegrounds. As a self-proclaimed "keen observer of politics," Paswan highlighted the unprecedented fissures: "But I have never seen an election where such a big alliance is on the verge of a split. There can be a dispute over the choice of seats, but they have not been able to even decide the number of seats."

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The remarks underscore deepening tensions in Bihar's high-stakes political arena, where the NDA—comprising the BJP, JD(U), and allies like LJP(RV)—aims to retain power after a narrow 2019 victory marred by Nitish Kumar's alliance shifts. For the Mahagathbandhan, the seat-sharing debacle risks eroding momentum built during the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, where the INDIA bloc made significant inroads. Analysts note that vote splits in overlapping seats could prove decisive in a state known for its razor-thin margins, with Paswan's intervention amplifying NDA's narrative of Opposition disarray.

As nominations close and campaigns intensify, Paswan's salvo signals no quarter in the battle for Bihar's 243 assembly seats. With the first phase of polling just weeks away, the Mahagathbandhan faces mounting pressure to mend fences—or risk ceding ground to a unified NDA poised to capitalize on every misstep.

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