JDU gets to work early for 2025 assembly polls

Buoyed by its victory in the Belaganj assembly by-election in Bihar, the JDU has started early preparations for the assembly polls next year. Besides the JDU, the BJP won two seats and Hindustani Awam Morcha retained one seat, making it a clean sweep for the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

All four seats fall in the Magadh-Shahabad belt of Bihar where the NDA had not been able to perform well since the 2020 assembly election. Earlier Janata Dal and since 1990, the RJD had been winning the Belaganj seat. JDU candidate Manorma Devi's victory in the by-election marked the first time in 34 years that a party other than the RJD won the seat.

"This victory is significant as we have defeated RJD in their stronghold and have gained ground in Magadh and Shahabad region. The vote transfer among the NDA allies has been smooth and it has solidified in people's minds ahead of the assembly polls," JDU general secretary and state minister Ashok Choudhary told ET.


Choudhary was handling the Belaganj election for the JDU and played an important role from candidate selection to campaign strategy.

The JDU has now formed seven teams with nine party leaders in each team. The teams have been assigned eight to 10 districts each where they would visit and organise meetings of party workers. The seven teams are headed by the JDU working president Sanjay Jha, Union minister Ramnath Thakur, Ashok Choudhary, state JDU president Umesh Kushwaha, state ministers Vijay Choudhary, Shravan Kumar and Vijendra Yadav.

"We are talking about the 19 years of the NDA government under Nitish Kumar and how it has changed Bihar. We are taking forward the message of our leader Nitish Kumar and reminding people how Bihar was and how it is now because of Nitish Kumar. The bypoll results are an indication of the results of the upcoming assembly election," Sanjay Jha told ET.

The current round of meetings will get over by December 15 and another round of meetings of NDA leaders will begin from January 15, he said.

"The state presidents of all NDA parties will together visit the districts and meet a selected gathering of NDA party workers, followed by a lunch with them. The programme will be called 'Pangat se Sangat', which means coming closer by having a meal together," Jha said.