Bihar Elections: ‘Dead Seats’ May Heat Up Congress-RJD Seat-Sharing Talks

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Last Updated:March 28, 2025, 15:35 IST

News18 India's analysis of the 70 seats the Congress contested the last time reveals that at least 35 of them were historically weak, for both the Congress and RJD

RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav (left) and Congress's Rahul Gandhi. (PTI File)

The Congress has made it clear that it will contest the Bihar elections in alliance with the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), but a dispute over “dead seats", which have never been won, between the two parties seems inevitable.

Congress leaders believe that, in the last election, they were allocated seats, which neither the Congress nor the RJD had won for decades. This time, the Congress wants a respectful alliance arrangement with winnable seats, even as the RJD argues that victory is possible even on dead seats.

THE BREAK-UP

In the 2015 elections, the Congress contested 41 seats as part of the Grand Alliance and won 27. However, in the 2020 Bihar Assembly elections, the Congress contested 70 seats and won 19, but its strike rate was worse than that of RJD and Left parties.

For example, in the last election, the Congress was given nine seats in West Champaran and East Champaran districts, of which seven had been NDA strongholds for years. These include Valmikinagar, Ramnagar, Bagaha, Nautan, Chanpatia, Raxaul, and Govindganj.

Similarly, the Congress was given four seats in Patna district, but three of them were dead seats — Barh, Bankipur, and Patna Sahib.

In Nalanda district, the Congress received three assembly seats — Rajgir, Nalanda, and Harnaut. All three were dead seats. Rajgir has not been won by the Congress since 1962, Harnaut since 1977, and Nalanda since 1995.

देश के सबसे युवा प्रदेश की भविष्य में संभावनाओं को 20 सालों से मुख्यमंत्री रहे एक थके हारे राजनेता की राजनीतिक महत्वाकांक्षाओं और उसकी निष्क्रिय सहयोगी राजनीतिक पार्टी के हवाले नहीं किया जा सकता!समय आ गया है कि बिहार अपने प्रतिभाशाली युवाओं के बल पर आगे बढ़े, युवा… pic.twitter.com/mRhU35scZT
— Rashtriya Janata Dal (@RJDforIndia) March 28, 2025

LEADERSPEAK

Congress senior leader and MP from Bihar Tariq Anwar says, “Our effort will be to adjust the seats through mutual agreement. Everyone will be given seats where they have influence. If we give a seat where the Congress has influence to another party, it will be a disadvantage. The party that has influence in a particular area will be given the seat there."

However, RJD leader and MP Sudhakar Singh argued that seats should be allocated based on winnability and that the Congress, like RJD, can also defeat the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in tough seats. He cites the example of how RJD won the Buxar Lok Sabha seat in 2024, a BJP stronghold.

Talking to News18 India exclusively, Bihar Congress President Rajesh Kumar said that the Congress is not a “B Team" in the alliance and deserves a fair share of seats.