Patna, September 8, 2025: The seat-sharing tussle within the Grand Alliance in Bihar has escalated after CPI-ML demanded 40 seats for the upcoming polls.
The party’s move has increased pressure on RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, who is already facing stiff demands from other allies.
CPI-ML’s demand:
CPI-ML State Secretary Comrade Kunal, addressing the media in Motihari on Monday, announced that the party has prepared a list of 40 seats and handed it over to the coordination committee of the Grand Alliance.
He argued that wherever CPI-ML contested in the past, not only did the party perform strongly, but it also boosted the overall performance of the alliance.
In the 2020 Bihar assembly polls, CPI-ML contested on 19 seats and won 12, recording an impressive strike rate.
Banking on that success, the party is pushing for a larger share this time.
Allies rising aspirations:
Congress has already declared its intention to contest on 70 seats, the same number it fought in 2020 when it managed to win only 19 seats.
Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP) chief Mukesh Sahani has staked a claim to 60 seats, while repeatedly declaring himself as the Deputy CM face of the Grand Alliance.
In 2020, Sahani’s party was part of the NDA, contested 11 seats, won 4, but Sahani himself lost.
Pressure on RJD:
With Congress, VIP, and CPI-ML aggressively pushing their claims, the RJD, the largest party in the alliance, finds itself in a difficult balancing act.
While RJD needs to accommodate allies to maintain unity, over-conceding could reduce its own dominance in the seat-sharing formula.
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EOM.