Mahagathbandhan (Bihar)


Mahagathbandhan was a coalition of political parties in the Eastern state of Bihar in India, formed before the 2015 Vidhan Sabha elections in Bihar.
The alliance consisted of Janata Dal, Rashtriya Janata Dal, and Congress parties won the majority of the seats and formed the government in the state. On 26 July 2017 Nitish Kumar broke the alliance and resigned from Chief Minister post. On 20 December 2018 RLSP joined Mahagathbandhan

History

On 7 June, Lalu Prasad Yadav announced the RJD was joining in an alliance with the JDU for the election. On 13 July, he led a march demanding that the central government release its findings of the Socio Economic Caste Census 2011 on caste, although Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan pitched for a comprehensive classification of caste data of SECC 2011 before its release, and also said Lalu, Nitish will be worst impacted from the caste data even if its released. BJP Leader Sushil Kumar Modi called for a rectification of errors in the cases of 1.46 crore people in India, including 1.75 lakh in Bihar, before releasing the caste data.
On 3 August, incumbent Chief Minister Nitish Kumar declared that he would not stand in the election. On 11 August, he announced the seat-sharing formula, according to which JD and RJD will contest 100 seats each, while Congress will contest 40 seats in Bihar. NCP pulled out of this alliance later. On 23 September, Nitish Kumar announced the list of 242 candidates for the JDU-RJD-INC alliance. OBCs were most favoured in the alliance ticket distribution plan. 10% of tickets were allotted to women candidate by the alliance.
Nitish Kumar was the declared chief ministerial candidate for the Mahagathbandhan. Kumar started his Har Ghar Dastak campaign on 2 July. Initially there were definite political overtures when both Lalu Prasad Yadav and Nitish Kumar shared stage together in a public event commemorating former chief minister Satyendra Narain Sinha's birth anniversary that witnessed veiled attacks on each other, the last time they did it in public. Prashant Kishor was a key election strategist for the alliance. The Janata Dal-United started 400 audio-visual vans called Jan Bhagidari Manch for the campaign. Kumar is launching 'Bihar Samman Sammelan' in various cities, including Delhi and Mumbai, to connect with the Bihari diaspora.

Current members