Cracks Beneath the Coalition: Bihar’s Opposition Unity Starts to Unravel

Paromita Das

New Delhi, 18th October: As Bihar steps into the final hours of nominations for the first phase of the 2025 Assembly elections, the state’s grand opposition alliance — the Mahagathbandhan — finds itself entangled in a tug-of-war that threatens to unravel its unity. While the BJP-led NDA appears organized and disciplined, its rivals in the Congress and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) are still haggling over seats, struggling to finalize who contests where.

The suspense, which should have been resolved weeks ago, has deepened on the very last day of nominations, exposing fault lines that could cost the alliance dearly in the days to come. Five key assembly constituencies — Vaishali, Lalganj, Jale, Narkatiaganj, and Warsaliganj — have become flashpoints of conflict between the Congress and the RJD, with both parties staking competing claims.

This deadlock, while numerically small, carries enormous symbolic weight: it speaks to a deeper crisis of coordination and credibility within an alliance that is banking on unity to challenge the NDA’s dominance.

Five Seats, One Big Rift

Each of the five contentious seats tells a story of ego clashes, mistrust, and local-level rivalries that have spilled into the public domain.

In Vaishali, a seat previously held by Congress candidate Sanjeev Singh, the RJD has thrown its hat into the ring by fielding Ajay Kushwaha — a move seen as a direct snub to the Congress’s traditional claim. Similarly, Lalganj, another Congress stronghold, has become a battleground between the Congress’s Aditya Kumar and RJD’s interest in giving the ticket to Annu Shukla, wife of local heavyweight Munna Shukla.

In Jale, once contested by Congress’s Ahmed Usmani, both parties have proposed names — Naushad for Congress and Rishi Mishra for RJD — creating another headache for alliance coordinators.
The conflict extends to Narkatiaganj, where former Congress candidate Vinay Verma wants to contest again, but RJD is reportedly eyeing the seat to expand its western Bihar footprint.
And in Warsaliganj, Congress’s Satish Singh finds himself replaced by RJD’s choice — Ashok Mahato’s wife, whose nomination is being pushed as a symbolic gesture to local caste equations.

These overlapping ambitions have effectively turned what was supposed to be a show of unity into a public display of power struggle.

Symbol Distribution Amid Confusion

The situation on the ground is chaotic. Even without a finalized seat-sharing formula, both Congress and RJD have started distributing party symbols to candidates, a clear sign that coordination has broken down. Party offices in Patna and regional hubs have been buzzing with activity — and anxiety — as candidates rush to file nominations before the deadline.

This last-minute scramble contrasts sharply with the NDA’s campaign, where candidates were finalized days ago and the focus has already shifted to coordinated messaging, rallies, and voter outreach. The contrast in preparation not only affects morale but also voter perception — unity inspires confidence, confusion does not.

The Cost of Delay and Disunity

In Bihar’s complex electoral arithmetic, every seat counts, and five disputed constituencies can change the overall balance. But beyond numbers, the deeper concern is the narrative damage this infighting causes.

The Mahagathbandhan’s biggest selling point has been its unity against the BJP. Yet, the open tussle over ticket allocation suggests that power-sharing within the bloc remains unsettled. Political observers note that these disputes expose a lack of mutual respect and coordination, especially between the RJD’s youthful leadership under Tejashwi Yadav and the Congress’s national leadership, which has often been criticized for indecision and delay.

The timing makes it worse. With just days left for the first phase of polling on November 6, and the second phase set for November 11, the alliance’s internal wrangling has left workers and voters confused about who represents whom.

The NDA, meanwhile, is capitalizing on the chaos. BJP leaders have already begun mocking the alliance’s dysfunction, projecting the RJD-Congress camp as one that “can’t even decide seats, let alone govern a state.”

A Familiar Pattern of Congress-RJD Friction

This is not the first time the Mahagathbandhan has stumbled over seat-sharing. In the 2020 Bihar elections, similar friction had erupted, with Congress demanding more seats than it could effectively contest. The outcome was dismal — Congress contested 70 seats and won just 19, dragging down the alliance’s overall performance.

Despite those lessons, both sides appear to have repeated the same mistake — prioritizing symbolic assertion over strategic accommodation. RJD, as the larger partner, believes it has earned the right to contest more seats, while Congress insists it deserves recognition as a national party with a historical presence in the state.

This power dynamic — where one party seeks dominance and the other resists marginalization — has become the alliance’s Achilles’ heel.

Disunity in Opposition, Advantage for NDA

From an analytical standpoint, the Mahagathbandhan’s troubles highlight a recurring flaw in Bharat’s opposition politics: alliances formed against a common enemy often collapse under their own contradictions. The Congress and RJD share ideological overlap on issues like social justice and secularism, but at the operational level, they remain deeply mistrustful of each other’s intent.

In contrast, the NDA, despite being a coalition, operates under a centralized command where BJP’s organizational discipline ensures coherence. This difference — between unified strategy and fragmented ambition — could once again determine the outcome in Bihar.

As the nomination deadline closes, the Mahagathbandhan may still reach a compromise, but the damage is already visible. Every delay and dispute feeds the perception of instability — a perception that the BJP is adept at exploiting.

A Battle Lost Before It Begins?

The Mahagathbandhan entered the Bihar election season hoping to challenge the NDA’s narrative of stability and governance. Instead, it has handed the ruling alliance an easy talking point — that the Opposition can’t unite even for survival.

Five seats might not seem like much in a 243-member assembly, but they symbolize the deeper crisis within the alliance — a lack of cohesion, trust, and clear leadership. As Bihar inches closer to polling day, the NDA’s campaign looks sharp and synchronized, while the Opposition’s house still appears to be in disorder.

If the Mahagathbandhan cannot resolve its internal rifts swiftly and project a united front, the outcome on November 14 may be decided long before a single vote is cast.