'Either You’re Friends or You’re Fighting': Chirag Paswan on Bihar’s Opposition Discord

New Delhi: In a jab at the Grand Alliance of the opposition in Bihar, Union Minister Chirag Paswan claimed today that the INDIA alliance had given the NDA a landslide in numerous seats and that there are no "friendly fights" in politics.  

Paswan is a member of the NDA and is running for 29 seats in the next Bihar election as the leader of the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas). After the RJD revealed its 143-seat candidates, some of whom overlapped with the Congress, Paswan claimed to be a political watchdog.

‘Alliance on the Verge of a Split,’: Chirag Paswan 

 "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," he said.   

Mahagathbandhan Faces Internal Seat-Sharing Clash

Nominations for the second round of voting are due today, and elections for the 243-member Bihar Assembly are scheduled on November 6 and 11. Due to the inability of Mahagathbathdhan's partners to agree on a number of seats, they will now face off against one another in these constituencies. These battles have the potential to split opposition votes in favor of the NDA's candidates.

"There is nothing called 'friendly fight'. Either you are friends or you are fighting against each other. If you are contesting polls against each and targeting each other's leaders, how can you expect this won't have an impact in other seats?" Paswan asked.

"Mahagathbandhan will pay a big price for this. NDA was progressing strongly, and now Mahagathbandhan has given us a walkover on many seats that appeared to be challenging," he said.

RJD’s Candidate List Deepens Rift with Congress

A list of 143 candidates for the next elections was made public today by the Tejashwi Yadav-led RJD. The RJD put up candidates in four seats where the Congress had already announced candidates, indicating that things are not going well within the Mahagathbandhan.

The Mahagathbandhan's seat-sharing formula is as follows: RJD (143), Congress (55), CPIML (20), CPI (6), CPM (4), and VIP (15), with the RJD having announced 143 candidates. Remarkably, candidates for 60 seats have already been announced by the Congress.