Bihar Assembly Election 2020: Race to power heats up as politicians start switching sides

Assembly elections are likely to be held in Bihar in October-November this year, although the Election Commission has not yet announced the dates. Meanwhile, political parties are engaged in manipulations to reach power.

All political parties are talking about being ready for the Bihar Assembly Election 202. Friends of the last election will now be seen as political challengers and the challengers of the last election will hold hands to fight it out together.

In the last Bihar assembly election, the BJP and the Janata Dal (United) were fighting against each other, but in this election, they are again together in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

The Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) is likely to remain in the NDA this time too, but the Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP), which was in the NDA the last election, will not be seen with the NDA. Former Union Minister Upendra Kushwaha's party RLSP is with the grand alliance of opposition parties in this election.

It is a matter of fact that the RLSP and the Vikas Insan Party (VIP) are said to be angry because of the seat-sharing in the Grand Alliance so far. Former MP Pappu Yadav has also announced to contest in this election through Jan Adhikar Party. 

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) -led NDA, is more comfortable after JDU coming into its fold. The importance of these elections to BJP can be gauged from the fact that BJP's national president JP Nadda himself visited Patna to review ground level preparations.

During the last election, the left parties which entered the election alone can also join the grand alliance. There have been several rounds of talks between leftist parties and RJD leaders to contest elections in the RJD-led grand alliance.

RJD spokesman Mrityunjay Tiwari also claimed that the size of the grand alliance is set to increase. He said that negotiations are going on with many other parties. When asked about the resentment over seat-sharing, he said that the grand alliance is looking at the winnability of the candidate rather than focussing on the seat-sharing with constituents of the grand alliance.

BJP President Sanjay Jaiswal claims that the NDA has entered the election arena with full force. NDA parties are contesting the election on the issue of development. In the last assembly, JDU, RJD, and Congress were contesting elections under the Grand Alliance and formed a government with a majority. Later, the JDU broke away from the Grand Alliance and formed a government in Bihar with the BJP.