New Delhi: It is a recap of 2020 with Mukesh Sahani of the Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP) again trying to have his way in Bihar seat-sharing. But the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) is not in the mood to give in to his tantrums.
A miffed Sahani announced Friday that he will neither contest election nor he wants a Rajya Sabha seat offered by the Congress. The former Bihar minister had also given a tough time to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) two years ago.
Keeping aside the posturing, Sahani’s demands are part of the larger trend of smaller parties playing it hard with larger parties—thereby posing a challenge for both the opposition Mahagathbandhan and the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA).
If it is Sahani in the opposition camp, the BJP is facing tough situation while dealing with the Upendra Kushwaha-led Rashtriya Lok Morcha (RLM), Jitan Ram Manjhi’s Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM), and Chirag Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas).
During hectic seat sharing talks for the last 10 days in the Mahagatbhandhan camp, the VIP initially demanded 40 seats and the deputy CM post. Though it has now scaled down to 15 seats, Sahani’s tough bargaining has not gone well with the RJD and the Congress.
जिद 🔥🔥 pic.twitter.com/VF6zGMoUAu
— Mukesh Sahani (@sonofmallah) October 10, 2025
Talks with Sahani, according to sources from the Mahagathandhan, collapsed Thursday and he decided to convene a press conference to announce exit.
“But Dipankar Bhattacharya (of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist), or CPI-ML) made a call to (Congress leader) Rahul Gandhi, who then spoke to Sahani. This made Sahani remain in the alliance but now there’s friction in alliance over seats as the RJD don’t want to give him safe seats,” one of the sources added.
Five years ago, Sahani left the opposition camp to join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led NDA at the last moment. His party won four seats of the eleven it contested back then. He went on to become the animal husbandry and fisheries minister but was dismissed from the Bihar Cabinet in 2022.
“It was agreed that the Congress will give 8 seats from their quota and the RJD will give 10 seats from their quota, but they have not clarified which seats the VIP will contest,” a party insider told ThePrint.
“The other reason for the stalemate is that it was initially decided to go for a three deputy CM formula; yet, no announcement was made. The Congress offered a Rajya Sabha seat which was rejected by Sahani but he has no option now. He can’t go to the NDA.”
The RJD was unwilling to allow Sahani contest from Simri Bakhtiarpur, a seat he lost to its candidate Yusuf Salahuddin by a margin of less than 2,000 votes. The 44-year-old was instead offered Gaura Bauram from where his brother Santosh Sahani has been named as the VIP’s nominee.
“We will contest 15 seats and four candidates have already filed nominations. Sahani’s brother Santosh has filled the nomination from Gaura Bauram,” VIP spokesperson Devjyoti told ThePrint.
The tussle is not just with the VIP, as the friction over seat-sharing is likely to result in friendly fire in various seats. For instance, Bachwara may see a direct contest between the Congress and the CPI. The Congress and the RJD are said to be tussling over five seats including Jale, Vaishali, Lalganj, Narkatiaganj, and Warsaliganj.
Similarly, the CPI wants to contest from Bahadurpur, where the RJD has already announced its candidate. The CPI (ML) and the Congress are squabbling over Rajgir.
The CPI (ML) is seemingly throwing its weight given that it boasts of a better strike rate than the Congress—it won 12 of the 19 seats while the Congress won 19 of the 70 total seats in 2020. In the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the Left party won two (Arrah and Karakat) of the three seats it contested in Bihar.
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NDA woes
The RLM and the HAM have made their displeasure known over Chirag wresting away 29 seats in the NDA camp. In contrast, the two parties have got six seats each. The BJP and the Janata Dal (United), or the JD(U), are contesting 101 seats each.
A piqued Jitan Ram Manjhi has announced to file candidates against Chirag in Bodh Gaya and Makhdumpu. Union Home Minister Amit Shah called Manjhi and offered MLC seat to placate him.
Similarly, RLM’s Upendra Kushwaha wrote a long post on Twitter to express his discontent. Union minister Nityanand Rai took him to meet Shah, who offered a Rajya Sabha seat to mollify him.
प्रिय मित्रों/साथियों,
आप सभी से क्षमा चाहता हूं। आपके मन के अनुकूल सीटों की संख्या नहीं हो पायी। मैं समझ रहा हूं, इस निर्णय से अपनी पार्टी के उम्मीदवार होने की इच्छा रखने वाले साथियों सहित हजारों – लाखों लोगों का मन दुखी होगा। आज कई घरों में खाना नहीं बना होगा। परन्तु आप सभी…
— Upendra Kushwaha (@UpendraKushRLM) October 12, 2025
Bihar Chief Minister and JD(U) chief Nitish Kumar is unhappy with Chirag Paswan trying to snatch away seats of his party. Nitish and Chirag’s cold vibes are well-known in political circles.
“The bigger problem after seat distribution is synergy since the JD(U) has a trust deficit with the LJP (RV) after 2020. This time too, the LJP (RV) created confusion. Vote transfer will be a challenge; JD(U) cadre may not vote for the LJP (RV) and vice-versa. Synergy is needed for better results; we are hopeful these things will be sorted out by Amit Shah ji,” a BJP leader conceded to ThePrint.
Professor Rakesh Ranjan, a political science professor at Patna University, predicted that trust factor will spoil chances on many seats as vote transfer will be impacted.
Smaller players, more fragmented
When it comes to the NDA’s two well-known faces from the Dalit bloc, Chirag Paswan derives strength from the Paswan community, also known as Dusadh, (which is the largest chunk among the Dalits who account for 19.65 percent of the state’s population).
On the other hand, Manjhi, a former CM from the Mahadalit Musahar community, does not have age in his favour. Nevertheless, the octogenarian was made a Cabinet minister despite his party winning only one seat in the 2024 general elections. His party had returned to the NDA in 2020 and contested seven assembly segments of which it won 4 with a voteshare of 0.89 percent.
Chirag’s heft is reflected in his party getting 29 seats despite the LJP (RV) getting fewer seats (winning only one seat) than the VIP in 2020. That year, Chirag emerged as “a vote-cutter” who damaged the winning prospects of JD(U), in about 40 assembly seats.
In the 2024 Lok Sabha, Chirag won all five parliamentary seats he was allotted in Bihar and was made a Union minister as well. Plus, the 42-year-old has age on his side. With the heat over the Haryana IPS officer suicide and the Dalit backlash in 2024, Chirag is now a prized asset for the BJP in this election.
“(Chirag’s late father) Ram Vilas Paswan unlike other small party leaders like Kushwaha or Manji had cultivated a broader social base with Dalits, Muslim and even the upper castes. He always celebrated Eid, left the NDA over the Gujarat riots,” Professor Ranjan told ThePrint.
“Chirag (is) adding youth power to his core vote bank. The BJP is aiming to rule Bihar after the Nitish era ends. Chirag has become the most important ally in the long run. The only lesson he has to learn from his father is to maintain autonomy of the party, like Ram Vilas did by switching alliances for his own benefit.”
Former Union minister Upendra Kushwaha, meanwhile, is vital for the BJP as he—despite losing in the last general elections—wields influence on the crucial Kushwaha voters. In 2020, his party had played the role of “vote cutter” in over 30 seats, hurting both the NDA and the Mahagathbandhan.
As for Sahani, the VIP chief presents himself as “a son of Mallah (boatmen).” Though he emerged as a rising face, Sahani’s switches (in 2015 he campaigned for the BJP, his tantrum in 2020) and his ambition has jeopardised his political trajectory.
In fact, his act of fielding 49 candidates against the NDA in Uttar Pradesh had resulted in the BJP prodding Nitish to sack Sahani from his Cabinet. Subsequently, VIP legislators joined the BJP. Now, his demands have miffed the RJD and the Congress.
“These social justice parties want to grab more power in the name of sharing advantages to the disadvantaged. Look at Manjhi; he has allocated most of the seats to his family. Kushwaha has fielded his wife. Chirag has fielded most of his family members,” Professor Aditya Raj of IIT-Patna told ThePrint.
The real share of power, he lamented, never reaches at grass roots. “It’s a sad affair of social justice politics, but it takes time for empowerment of the disadvantaged groups and it’s part of the churning process.”
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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