The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) has officially released its candidate list for the 2025 Bihar Assembly Elections, nominating contenders for 143 seats. A significant announcement from the party is that its leader, Tejashwi Yadav, will be standing for election from the Raghopur assembly seat, located in the Vaishali district. This move comes amid ongoing discussions and a temporary halt in seat-sharing agreements within the INDIA bloc for the elections scheduled for November 6 and 11, with results expected on November 14.
The deadline for candidates to withdraw their nominations for the first phase of polling on November 6, covering 121 out of 243 seats, is today at 3 PM. So far, 1,375 nominations have been accepted as of Sunday evening.
In other related news, the Congress has announced candidates for 54 seats across both election phases. The Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP), led by Mukesh Sahani, plans to contest 15 seats, while the CPI-ML and CPI have put forward candidates for 20 and 9 seats, respectively.
Shifting Loyalties Mark Bihar’s Political Landscape
The current election season in Bihar has been characterized by political leaders frequently switching allegiances. Notably, former MP and four-time MLA Sarfaraz Alam has joined Prashant Kishor’s Jan Suraaj Party. Alam, son of the late Union minister Mohammad Taslimuddin, has previously won the Jokihat seat multiple times with different parties. This trend highlights a broader shift in Bihar’s politics, where pragmatic alliances often take precedence over ideological commitments.
Adding to this, nine candidates who previously won under different party banners are now competing with new affiliations. Following the dissolution of the Grand Alliance government last year, seven MLAs from the RJD and Congress have shifted their support to the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), and most of them have been given tickets for the upcoming polls.