नवीनतम
Bihar polls: Mahagathbandhan to announce seat sharing today
NEW DELHI [Maha Media]: The Congress-RJD seat-sharing tussle for the November assembly elections in Bihar reached Delhi on Sunday and may be resolved on Monday when Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi is expected to meet ally Tejashwi Yadav.
According to party insiders, the situation arose as a resurgent Congress led by AICC Bihar in charge, Krishna Allavaru had been negotiating the seats hard with the RJD, something the ally had not been used to.
The issue has been discussed within the INDIA bloc coordination committee at the state level over the past weeks, but could not be concluded as the RJD offered fewer seats than the minimum 60 demanded by the Congress.
According to Congress insiders, the grand old party had already come down from the 70 seats it had contested in the 2020 assembly elections for the sake of the alliance, but was not willing to give up too much to make room for the new entrants, VIP, RLJP and JMM.
Rahul, who returned from his visit abroad on Saturday, reviewed the Bihar developments with senior leaders on Sunday and may meet RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav on Monday to clinch the seat-sharing deal.
“The high command will take a final call in the matter. We have done the groundwork,” AICC secretary in charge of Bihar Sushil Pasi told ETV Bharat.
Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge, who has already spoken to Tejashwi over the phone to discuss the matter, is also expected to join the Monday meeting. On Sunday, Tejashwi Yadav, along with his parents Lalu Prasad and Rabri Devi, reached Delhi to attend a court date on October 13.
According to Congress insiders, both the Grand Old Party and the RJD were playing tough to get the most and best seats for their respective parties. Further, Tejashwi is keen to give a decent number of seats to ally Mukesh Sahani to keep his VIP within the INDIA bloc. Over the past days, Sahani had been demanding 60 seats and an assurance that the post of deputy chief minister would be given to his party if the alliance was voted to power, but the Congress managers have told the RJD that managing the VIP was their problem.
Further, the RJD, which has sensed an opportunity to gain power in 2025 due to natural anti-incumbency against the NDA and the gain in popularity after the Rahul Gandhi-Tejashwi Yadav-led anti-SIR yatra, was also under pressure to close the seat-sharing deal with the Congress in time to keep the INDIA bloc together.
The RJD is also pressing the grand old party that Tejashwi Yadav be affirmed as the bloc’s chief ministerial face to counter a fumbling NDA led by JD-U leader and chief minister Nitish Kumar, who is under pressure from ally BJP, the insiders said.
“Every election is important for the parties, and they try to get the best bargain in an alliance. That is what is happening between the Congress and the RJD. Both are testing each other’s nerves. It is all about the number of seats and the quality of the seats,” AICC functionary Chandan Yadav said to new agency.
According to senior AICC observer for the Bihar elections, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, the seat-sharing will be decided by the high command, but the Congress was strong in the state and would target the NDA’s governance failure over the past two decades.
“We hope the opposition seat-sharing and Congress seats will be announced soon. The alliance issues will be decided by the high command. We have met the state leaders over the past few days since we reached Patna. The Congress is going strong and is ready for the campaign, which will flag the failures of the NDA regime,” Chowdhury said to new agency.
