Unity Tension within the opposition camp in Bihar 2025 elections has surfaced as key seat-sharing disputes emerge, especially between RJD and Congress—what this means for the political battle in the state.
By Qalam Times News Network
Patna, 21 October 2025
Unity Tension is now unmistakably visible in the lead-up to the upcoming Bihar Legislative Assembly elections. With 1,314 candidates in the fray in the first phase, questions are being raised about the cohesion of the opposition coalition as nine constituencies expose cracks among allies. Meanwhile, the grand alliance (mahagathbandhan) has officially announced some of its nominees—but the deeper issue of Unity Tension continues to simmer.
In this first phase, the rival camp known as the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has already finalised its seat-sharing: the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Janata Dal (United) (JDU) each contest on 101 seats, the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) on 29, while smaller allies such as the Hindustani Awam Party (Secular) and the Rashtriya Lok Morchā get six seats apiece.
By contrast, the opposition mahagathbandhan’s seat-sharing remains unresolved—especially in hot‐target constituencies where multiple allies have fielded candidates. Six seats have both the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Congress nominees against each other, while four seats will see confrontations between Congress and the Communist Party of India (CPI).
Here’s the breakdown of the RJD-Congress clashes:
RJD vs Congress Clashes (Bihar Chunav 2025)
| No. | Constituency | RJD Candidate | Congress Candidate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sikandra | Uday Narayan Chaudhary | Vinod Chaudhary |
| 2 | Kahalgaon | Rajneesh Bharti | Praveen Kumar Kushwaha |
| 3 | SultanGanj | Chandan Sinha | Lalan Yadav |
| 4 | Vaishali | Ajay Kushwaha | Sanjeev Singh |
| 5 | Lalganj | Shivani Shukla | Aditya Kumar |
| 6 | WarisaliGanj | Anita | Satish Kumar |
In parallel, Congress and CPI will be pitted against each other at:
Congress vs CPI Clashes (Bihar Chunav 2025)
| No. | Constituency | Congress Candidate | CPI Candidate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bachhwara | Shiv Prakash Garib Das | Avdhesh Rai |
| 2 | Kargahar | Santosh Mishra | Mahendra Gupta |
| 3 | Bihar Sharif | Omair Khan | Shiv Kumar Yadav |
| 4 | Rajapakhar | Pratima Das | Mohit Paswan |
What this really means is that the opposition’s electoral arithmetic may undergo further stress. With the final day for withdrawal of nominations set for Monday, it looks increasingly likely that the mahagathbandhan will fight multiple friendly fights—that is, its own allies opposing each other while also facing NDA contenders.
Surendra Rajput of Congress has sought to downplay the fault-lines. “We may have disagreements about seats, but there are no hard feelings. We have sorted out the major issues,” he said, emphasising that “no bitterness remains in the alliance.” Meanwhile, RJD leader Mritunjay Tiwari acknowledged that “there are some places where such situations have arisen”—but added that “everything will be set right in time; efforts are ongoing.”
The two-phased election begins on 6 and 11 November, with results due on 14 November. There are 243 assembly seats in Bihar. RJD has already announced candidates for 143 seats (in the 2020 elections it had fielded 144) and Congress has announced 61 candidates so far (it had contested 70 seats previously and won 19).
One further complication: despite the common opposition front, the inability yet to finalise sharing of the winnable seats means the alliance may dilute its strength by fighting among itself. The NDA’s united front contrasts sharply with the mahagathbandhan’s current state of flux, which reinforces the theme of Unity Tension very vividly.
For voters and analysts alike, the key question now: will the opposition be able to convert potential into performance, or will internal friction cost them? The coming weeks will speak volumes.
