Grand Democratic Secular Front

The Grand Democratic Secular Front (GDSF) was a coalition of political parties in the Indian state of Bihar formed on 8 October 2020 after the merger of the constituents of the United Democratic Secular Alliance and a three party front. The coalition was formed in the wake of the 2020 Bihar Legislative Assembly election and consisted of 6 parties.

History

The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen announced an alliance with Samajwadi Janata Dal Democratic ahead of the 2020 elections in Bihar. RLSP, BSP and PSP declared another alliance for upcoming Bihar election. However these two separate coalition of political parties merged and formed a brand new alliance named Grand Democratic Secular Front and declared Upendra Kushwaha as its Chief Ministerial candidate for Bihar. According to its leaders, the alliance was forged to converge the Dalit, OBC and Muslim votes.

The bloc's ticket distribution plan gave due weightage to caste and communal representation in various constituencies. It was decided that the Rashtriya Lok Samta Party will contest on 104 out of 243 seats of the Bihar Assembly while Bahujan Samaj Party was to contest on 80 seats. The other members like AIMIM and Samajwadi Janata Dal were given 24 and 25 seats respectively while the minor players like Suhaldev Bhartiya Samaj Party and Janwadi Party Socialist were to contest 5-5 seats each.

In the first phase of the election RLSP contested on 42 seats. Relying upon its vote base which is Kushwaha caste, RLSP fielded 40% Kushwaha candidates in the elections . The Grand Democratic Secular Front of which RLSP was a constituent member relied primarily upon the votes of castes like Kushwahas, Ravidasis, and Muslims . RLSP in the first phase of elections contested a total of 42 seats amongst which it gave ticket to 17 candidates of Kushwaha caste while its ally AIMIM placed its candidates in Muslim dominated areas of Bihar. Similarly in the list of its 37 candidates in the second phase also Koeri candidates were dominant accounting for 18 seats.

The Grand Democratic Secular front however failed to perform as it claimed earlier in the Bihar Assembly Elections of 2020. Its only success was in obtaining six seats, five of which were won by AIMIM in the Muslim dominated Simanchal region of Bihar. The Bahujan Samaj Party also won one seat but the RLSP, the principal political party of the alliance performed badly and failed to win any seats.

Performance in 2020 Bihar Assembly elections

Alliance		Party		Popular vote			Seats
				Votes	%	±pp	Contested	Won	+/−
	GDSF		AIMIM	523,279	1.24%	1.03%	20	5	5
			BSP	628,944	1.49%	0.60%	80	1	1
			RLSP	744,221	1.77%	0.82%	104	0	2
			SJDD	—	—	—	25	0	—
			SBSP	—	—	—	5	0	—
			JP-S	—	—	—	5	0	—

Defection of legislators and dormancy

Following its poor performance in Bihar Assembly elections of 2020, the coalition ripped apart with its elected Member of Legislative Assembly meeting with leaders of other political parties. Zama Khan, the single legislator from Bahujan Samaj Party joined Janata Dal (United) and was made a minister in the expanded cabinet of Nitish Kumar in 2021. The defection was followed by the attempt of JD(U) to merge the Rashtriya Lok Samata Party, which happened inevitably in 2021. The merger of RLSP into the JDU ripped the coalition apart. The coalition virtually ceased to exist after it.

Members and status of parties during 2020 Bihar elections

Party		Abbreviation	MPs in Lok Sabha	MPs in Rajya Sabha	Seats in Bihar Legislative Assembly	Base State
	Bahujan Samaj Party	BSP	10	4	0	National Party
	All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen	AIMIM	2	0	5	Telangana Bihar Maharashtra
	Samajwadi Janata Dal Democratic	SJDD	0	0	0	Bihar
	Rashtriya Lok Samta Party	RLSP	0	0	0	Bihar
	Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party	SBSP	0	0	0	Uttar Pradesh
	Janvadi Party Socialist	Janvadi Party Socialist	0	0	0	Uttar Pradesh

See also

• United Progressive Alliance
• National Democratic Alliance
• Mahagathbandhan (Bihar)
• Progressive Democratic Alliance (Bihar)
• Coalition government