'Nitish Kumar is NOT happy'

Tue, 14 October 2025

12:06

Angst behind the smiles?

The ruling BJP is set to turn the filing of nomination papers for next month's Bihar assembly polls into a 'mega show' to impress voters. The party has decided to use everything it can to make it a mega event.

BJP leader and Union Home Minister Amit Shah is likely to camp in Bihar from Oct 15 to 18 for filing of nomination papers by the party's candidates and its allies.

According to sources, 12 chief ministers of BJP-ruled states and 20 union ministers will attend the filing of nomination papers.

At least 12 helicopters will be deployed to carry leaders across the state to attend the filing of nomination papers for the 122 assembly seats going to the polls on November 6, the first day of the two-phase polls. The second phase is on November 11.

A political observer in Patna said that the BJP is preparing for filing of nomination papers to send a political message that it was confident of returning to power.

"It will be like a celebration ahead of the results on November 14," the source said.

Interestingly, the ruling NDA postponed the much awaited candidate list release on Monday evening amid growing apprehensions over seat sharing arrangements that was finalised on Sunday evening.

At the last moment, the ruling NDA postponed the release (announcement) of its first list of candidates, due to growing discontent among allies over seat-sharing arrangements and allotment of seats.

In fact, it was Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who is also president of JD-U, who strongly objected to seat sharing arrangements.

"Nitish Kumar is not happy and he made it clear to ally BJP to first clear the seats allotted to allies before announcing it," a JD-U leader said.

The date was postponed after two small allies, HAM and RLM, expressed unhappiness over seat sharing arrangement made public on Sunday evening amid the growing differences between the BJP and the JD-U on some seats.

Bihar BJP president Dileep Jaiswal said that NDA will declare the name of its candidate on Tuesday evening.

HAM and RLM were upset after LJP(R) led by Union Minister Chirag Paswan was allotted 29 seats to contest. This was widely regarded as the main cause of discontent in the NDA. Besides, senior BJP leader and Union Minister Griraj Singh on Monday targeted JD-U over its strike rate, which is seen as his strong reservation to allot equal seats to BJP and JD-U this time.

Senior BJP leader and Union Minister Dharmendar Pradhan along with other senior JD-U leaders were expected to release the list of candidates of the NDA at a press conference in Patna.

A day after NDA finalised its seat sharing for polls in Bihar, all eyes are now on the candidates list.

According to seat-sharing arrangements, BJP and JD-U will contest 101 seats each, LJP(R) of Union Minister Chirag Paswan will contest 29 seats and HAM of Union Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi and RLM of former Union Minister Upendra Kushwaha will contest 6 seats each.

MI Khan in Patna

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