In Nitish Kumar's Bihar List, A Muslim Balancing Act, And Caste Equation Play

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal United (JDU) has fielded Muslim candidates in four seats for the 2025 Bihar assembly elections, carefully balancing caste equations with community vote banks in the politically sensitive state.

The four candidates are among the 44 names announced in the second list released by Bihar's ruling party this morning and are less than half of the 10 Muslim candidates that it fielded last election. The BJP has not fielded any Muslim candidate this time.

The JDU's minority candidates have been nominated from Chainpur, Amaur, Jokihat, and Araria seats. Except for Chainpur, the remaining three are in the politically sensitive Seemanchal region, comprising a large chunk of the state's 17% Muslim population.

Read: BJP Announces All 101 Names For Bihar, Releases 3rd List Of 18 Candidates

JDU candidate Jama Khan has been fielded from Chainpur, Saba Zafar from Amous, Manzar Alam from Jokihat, and Shagupta Azim from Araria.

In the 2020 elections, Chainpur was won by the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), while Congress had won Araria. Amour and Jokihat had gone to the AIMIM account.

JDU's Caste Equation

The JDU's four Muslim faces feature among the candidates announced by the JDU for the 101 seats that it is contesting. Besides, focus had been on the caste equation central to Bihar's electoral politics. After marathon meetings and multiple reviews, the party began releasing its candidate game plan this week, with the first list with 57 names being announced yesterday.

Read: 31 Hours To Nomination Deadline, Tejashwi Yadav's Ultimatum To Key Ally

The party has given tickets to 37 candidates from the Backward Classes and 22 each to the Extremely Backward Classes and the General Category. Fifteen Scheduled Castes have also been nominated by the JDU, besides one from the Scheduled Tribes.

The list also comprises 13 women, five ministers in the current government, and three strongmen.

NDA Seat Plan

The JDU is contesting 101 of the total 243 seats in Bihar as part of a seat-sharing plan formulated by the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA). The BJP will contest another 101 seats, while the rest have been distributed among the minor allies.

Read: Nitish Kumar Has His Way, JDU List Has 5 Seats Chirag Paswan Wanted

Upendra Kushwaha's Rashtriya Lok Morcha and Jitan Ram Manjhi's Hindustan Awam Morcha (HAM) will contest six each, while Chirag Paswan's Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) will get 29 seats. Among these allies, Manjhi has announced the names of all his six candidates. Chirag Paswan has released the names of 17 candidates; he's yet to reveal the LJP's candidates for the remaining 12 seats in his share. Kushwaha has announced the names of four candidates, and two remain.