Filing of nomination papers ended on Monday (October 20, 2025) for the second and final phase of Bihar Assembly polls, with the opposition INDIA bloc appearing fractured, as constituents would end up fighting each other in a number of seats.
According to the Election Commission of India, altogether 1,314 candidates have been left in the fray for the first phase in which 121 constituencies of the 243-strong Assembly would go to polls on November 6, following the withdrawal of 61 nominees, besides rejection of more than 300 during scrutiny.
The RJD, which helms the Opposition coalition, and prides itself on having emerged as the single-largest party in the past couple of Assembly elections, came out with a list of its 143 candidates, much after most of them had already been allotted symbols and filed nomination papers.
The party avoided a confrontation with the Congress, refraining from fielding a candidate in reserved constituency of Kutumba against BPCC president Rajesh Kumar Ram, though its candidates would end up fighting against nominees of the grand old party in Lalganj, Vaishali and Kahalgaon.
Earlier, the RJD had also seemed poised for a fight with former State Minister Mukesh Sahni’s Vikassheel Insaan Party in Tarapur, where the NDA has fielded BJP leader and Deputy Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary, and Gaura Boram.
However, in Tarapur, the VIP announced that it would not back its candidate Sakaldeo Bind, who then withdrew his nomination papers in indignation and joined the BJP in presence of Mr. Choudhary.
In Gaura Boram, a letter from RJD president Lalu Prasad to the Chief Electoral Officer of Bihar, informing that his party was backing Sahni’s younger brother Santosh, and that the person “turning up with our poll symbol, the lantern, not be considered for nomination” proved to be of no avail.
Afzal Ali, who had filed the nomination papers on the RJD symbol, refused to back down and the party cadre was now confronted with a confusing situation in the constituency falling in Darbhanga district.
The RJD also faces rebellion in Parihar, where Ritu Jaiswal, the party’s women’s wing chief filed her nomination papers as an Independent, upset over the ticket going to daughter-in-law of former State president Ram Chandra Purve, whom she has been suspecting of having played a role in her defeat in the last Assembly polls, when she lost by a thin margin.
Infighting in the INDIA bloc would also be witnessed in Bachhwara, Rajapakar and Rosera, with Congress and CPI fielding their candidates in all the three seats. Rajapakar is currently held by the Congress which has let sitting MLA Pratima Kumari Das defend her seat.
The Congress is contesting altogether 61 seats, five less than the number it had contested in 2020, when it had won only 19 and the dismal strike rate was blamed for the inability of Mahagathbandhan to win a majority.
The momentum gained by Rahul Gandhi’s Voter Adhikar Yatra notwithstanding, the party is having to contend with intense dissidence as state leaders are questioning the criterion adopted for giving tickets, with many candidates who lost by huge margins five years getting another chance but those who gave a tough fight to the NDA have been overlooked.
A point of discord has also been the clout enjoyed by Pappu Yadav, the Independent MP from Purnea, married to Ranjeet Ranjan, a Congress Rajya Sabha MP from Chhattisgarh, whose loyalists have been given tickets in place of sitting MLAs, or they have been fielded from seats where the party did not have a strong chance of winning.
Vikassheel Insaan Party, which has no MLA in the outgoing Assembly, had aggressively demanded ’40-50 seats’, besides the assurance that Mukesh Sahni would be the ‘Deputy Chief Minister’ if Tejashwi Yadav headed the next government, but they did a major climbdown and settled for 16 constituencies.
The CPI(ML) Liberation, which had the best strike rate in the Mahagathbandhan in 2020, when it contested 19 and won 12, decided against being too ambitious and is contesting only 20 seats.
The CPI, which has two MLAs, is contesting nine seats, the party’s office secretary Indu Bhushan Verma said.
CPI(M) Bihar state secretariat member Manoj Chandravanshi said his party, which also has two MLAs, would be contesting four seats.
The last date of filing of nomination papers had its own share of drama.
The RJD candidate from Sasaram, Satyendra Sah, was arrested shortly after filing of nomination papers, by a team of Jharkhand Police in connection with a case pending against him in the adjoining state.
It was the third instance of its kind involving candidates of INDIA bloc.
Earlier, last week, CPI(ML) Liberation candidates Jitendra Paswan and Satyadeo Ram were arrested shortly after filing nomination papers from Bhore and Darauli respectively.
The Left party had alleged that these arrests were “politically motivated” and a sign of “fear and panic” in the NDA camp which has been ruling Bihar for 20 years and was now facing anti-incumbency.
Published – October 20, 2025 10:21 pm IST
