The filing of nomination papers for the second and final phase of the Bihar Assembly elections concluded on Monday, October 20, 2025. However, the opposition INDIA bloc appears to be in disarray, with alliance partners frequently clashing over seat allocations and candidates.
According to the Election Commission of India, a total of 1,314 candidates are now officially in the running for the first phase. This phase will see 121 out of the 243 Assembly constituencies go to polls on November 6. The final candidate count comes after 61 nominations were withdrawn and over 300 were rejected during the scrutiny process.
The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), the leading party within the Opposition coalition, which has consistently been the single-largest party in recent Assembly elections, released its list of 143 candidates quite late. Many candidates had already received their symbols and even filed their nomination papers before the official RJD list was published.
While the RJD managed to avoid a direct clash with the Congress in the reserved constituency of Kutumba, where BPCC president Rajesh Kumar Ram is contesting, its candidates will still face off against Congress nominees in key constituencies like Lalganj, Vaishali, and Kahalgaon.
Earlier, the RJD had also anticipated a conflict with Mukesh Sahni’s Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP) in Tarapur and Gaura Boram. In Tarapur, the NDA has already put forward BJP leader and Deputy Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary.
However, the situation in Tarapur took an unexpected turn when the VIP publicly disavowed its candidate, Sakaldeo Bind. In a dramatic move, Bind withdrew his nomination in protest and subsequently joined the BJP alongside Mr. Choudhary.
In Gaura Boram, a letter from RJD president Lalu Prasad, informing the Chief Electoral Officer of Bihar, that his party endorsed Sahni’s younger brother Santosh and that the person presenting the ‘lantern’ poll symbol should not be considered, ultimately proved ineffective.
Afzal Ali, who had already filed his nomination under the RJD symbol, refused to step aside. This has created a confusing situation for the party’s supporters in the Darbhanga district constituency.
The RJD is also facing internal rebellion in Parihar. Ritu Jaiswal, the head of the party’s women’s wing, filed her nomination as an Independent candidate. She was reportedly displeased that the ticket went to the daughter-in-law of former State president Ram Chandra Purve, whom she suspects of having sabotaged her campaign in the previous Assembly polls, where she lost by a narrow margin.
Further internal strife within the INDIA bloc is evident in Bachhwara, Rajapakar, and Rosera, where both the Congress and CPI have fielded their own candidates. Notably, Rajapakar is currently held by Congress MLA Pratima Kumari Das, who is seeking re-election.
The Congress is contesting 61 seats this election, five fewer than in 2020. In the previous polls, the party won only 19 seats, and its poor performance was widely cited as a major reason why the Mahagathbandhan failed to secure a majority.
Despite the positive momentum generated by Rahul Gandhi’s ‘Voter Adhikar Yatra,’ the party is battling significant internal dissent. State leaders are questioning the criteria used for ticket distribution, noting that some candidates who suffered massive defeats five years ago are being given another chance, while others who put up strong fights against the NDA have been overlooked.
Another point of contention is the influence of Pappu Yadav, the Independent MP from Purnea and husband of Ranjeet Ranjan, a Congress Rajya Sabha MP from Chhattisgarh. Yadav’s loyalists have reportedly received tickets, sometimes replacing sitting MLAs, or have been fielded in constituencies where the party had slim chances of winning.
The Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP), which currently holds no seats in the outgoing Assembly, had initially demanded ’40-50 seats’ and an assurance that Mukesh Sahni would be named ‘Deputy Chief Minister’ if Tejashwi Yadav formed the next government. However, the party significantly scaled back its demands and ultimately settled for contesting 16 constituencies.
The CPI(ML) Liberation, which boasted the best strike rate within the Mahagathbandhan in 2020 (winning 12 out of 19 contested seats), adopted a less ambitious approach this time, deciding to contest only 20 seats.
According to Indu Bhushan Verma, the CPI’s office secretary, his party, which holds two MLA seats, is contesting nine constituencies.
Similarly, CPI(M) Bihar state secretariat member Manoj Chandravanshi confirmed that his party, also with two sitting MLAs, would be contesting four seats.
The final day for filing nomination papers was not without its share of drama. The RJD candidate from Sasaram, Satyendra Sah, was arrested by a Jharkhand Police team shortly after submitting his papers, in connection with an ongoing case in the neighboring state.
This marks the third such incident involving candidates from the INDIA bloc. Last week, CPI(ML) Liberation candidates Jitendra Paswan and Satyadeo Ram were also arrested immediately after filing their nominations from Bhore and Darauli, respectively.
The Left party has strongly condemned these arrests, alleging they are ‘politically motivated’ and indicative of ‘fear and panic’ within the NDA camp, which has governed Bihar for two decades and is now facing significant anti-incumbency sentiment.