PM Modi chairs BJP's CEC meeting to finalise candidates for upcoming Bihar elections

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday arrived at BJP headquarters in Delhi to chair the party's Central Election Committee meeting to nominate the candidates in the upcoming Bihar assembly elections. BJP National President JP Nadda escorted the prime minister to the meeting while Home Minister Amit Shah is already said to have arrived at the meeting that will finalise the list of candidates for BJP. It is said that JP Nadda will also conduct a huge virtual rally soon to sound the BJP's war bugle for Bihar election.

BJP had earlier released a list of 29 candidates and after today's meeting the list for remaining candidates will be released either today or tomorrow, sources said.

NDA vs Mahagathbandhan

From the NDA fold, BJP will contest on 121 seats of which 11 seats have been allocated to its smaller allies, while the ruling JDU in coalition with BJP will contest on 122 seats of which 7 seats are allotted to Jitan Ram Manjhi's HAM, in the 243 seat Bihar assembly election. This election will witness one of the allies in NDA, the LJP contesting solo as the party had differences over the seat-sharing ratio with JDU.

On the other hand, Mahagathbandhan consisting of Congress and RJD will have Tejashwi Yadav as the CM face with RJD-Congress agreeing on 144:70 seat-sharing ratio along with three other Communist parties contesting on 29 seats, whereas AIMIM, BSP and RLSP will be contesting in the coalition. There are three other alliances also that will contest elections this year namely Progressive Democratic Alliance (PDA) - JAP, ASP, SDP, and BMP,  United Democratic Secular Alliance (UDSA) - AIMIM-SJD and BSP-RLSP.

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Bihar Assembly elections

Bihar goes to polls in three phases for its 243 assembly seats on October 28, November 3 and November 7. Keeping in view the COVID-19 protocol, the voting time has been increased by one hour. The counting of votes will take place on November 10. The ECI announced the Bihar election schedule on September 25. The polling for the 243-member legislative assembly will be held in three phases. The first phase will be held on October 28, Second on November 3 and the third on November 7, while the counting of votes and results declaration will be held on November 10. The Model Code of Conduct has been in effect since the announcement of election dates.

In the 2015 assembly polls, CM Nitish Kumar's JDU, then a part of the Mahagathbandhan won 71 seats, Lalu Prasad Yadav's RJD won 80 seats, and Congress won 27 seats. The BJP which fought the elections alone after Kumar in 2013 broke the 17-year-old alliance won a mere 53 seats out of 157 contested. However, the saffron party came back to power when Kumar ditched the Mahagathbandhan and once again stitched an alliance with the BJP.

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