Bihar: Grand Alliance announces seat-sharing deal; RJD to contest in 144 seats

The multi-party Grand Alliance fixed its share of seats ahead of the Bihar assembly polls on Saturday (October 3), notwithstanding a minor fissure, with Rashtriya Janata Dal’s Tejashwi Yadav being backed unanimously as the face of the coalition and the party ending up with a lion’s share of the seats.

Announcing the seat-sharing formula in presence of leaders of Congress, CPI(ML), CPI and CPI(M), Yadav said his party will accommodate old alliance partner Vikashheel Insaan Party (VIP) and JMM its ally in adjoining Jharkhand from its quota of 144 seats in the 243-member Assembly.

Among other allies, Congress has been given 70 seats, nearly twice as many as it had contested in the 2015 assembly polls in alliance with the RJD and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s JD(U). The Congress will also be fielding its candidate in Valmiki Nagar Lok Sabha seat where by-poll will be held on November 07.

Among the Left parties, the CPI(ML) has been given 19 seats, followed by CPI (six) and CPI(M).

CPI()ML had been seeking 20 seats and the RJD had offered 15 seats to it earlier.

Yadav vowed to dislodge the government headed by Nitish Kumar, whom Congress leader Avinash Pandey in his address accused of “apharan” (hijacking) of the mandate in the previous elections.

The JD(U) chief had fought 2015 elections opposing the BJP led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi but ended up re-aligning with the saffron party, Pandey said. The disjointed formation, however, continued to be in disarray as VIP president Mukesh Sahni a Bollywood set designer-turned-politician announced soon after the press conference that he was quitting the grand alliance since he did not get “a respectable offer”.

Related news: Bihar polls: RJD’s ‘job offer’ for youth has NDA on back foot

The seat-sharing deal picked up pace after RJD supremo Lalu Prasad’s emissary Bhola Yadav returned to Patna from Ranchi on Thursday to discuss the distribution of seats among different partners. On Friday, CPI(ML) general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya and the party’s Bihar unit secretary, Kunal, met Tejashwi Yadav.

The NDA has not yet announced their seat-sharing pact due to the delay caused by Ram Vilas Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party (LJP), which has been seeking more seats in the polls.

The LJP called for a meeting of its Parliamentary board on Saturday to decide its next step.

Kushwaha has forged an alliance with the BSP and Janatantrik Party (Socialist) for the elections. BSP head Mayawati also announced that her party would be supporting Kushwaha as the chief ministerial candidate.

The Bihar assembly elections would be held in three phases on October 28, November 3, and November 7, while the votes will be counted on November 10.

(With inputs from agencies)