As the NDA on Sunday announced its seat-sharing formula for the coming Bihar Assembly elections, the eyecatcher with 29 seats was Chirag Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas).

Admitting that Chirag had punched well above his weight and that the BJP accommodated him to keep the alliance “united and healthy”, sources said the party’s decision was informed by its “weak footing among the Dalits”.

Here are the factors that played a role in the BJP giving in to Chirag’s demands.

The Dalit scare

Attributing the party’s poor performance in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh to a “sizeable chunk of Dalit votes going towards the Samajwadi Party (SP)”, a senior BJP leader said, “The BJP could not capitalise on the vacuum created by the decline of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP),

See Full Page