Elections 2019: After Hard Bargain, Bihar Grand Alliance May Announce Seats on Wednesday

Patna: Hard bargaining for more seats between Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Congress to contest Lok Sabha polls in Bihar is continuing to delay seat adjustments in the opposition Grand Alliance.

In fact, the delay is reportedly dampening the mood among leaders and workers of other allies, such as Rashtriya Lok Samta Party, Hindustani Awam Morcha and even Left parties, which have decided to wait and watch till March 20.

In addition, the delay is leading to uncertainty among possible candidates and parties about when to kickstart the election campaign process.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance has already announced its seat sharing arrangement, according to which Janata Dal-United (JD-U) and will contest 17 seats each and the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP), led by Ram Vilas Paswan, six seats. However, there are reports of rumblings on seat sharing even within the NDA camp.

Meanwhile, sources in RJD and Congress the seat-sharing would be finalised by Tuesday night and it will be announced in Patna on Wednesday in a joint press conference attended by leaders of all allies.

Congress is reportedly firm on contesting at least 11 or 10 of 40 Lok Sabha seats, and RJD is eyeing 20 or 21 seats. The remaining seats will be given to other allies.

“After several rounds of talks ,Congress has agreed to contest 10 seats but not less than that and RJD is not ready to give more than 9 seats to Congress. RJD and the Congress are busy bargaining with each other over seats, but both need each other and cannot ignore other allies this time”, a Congress leader said.

Earlier, Congress leaders wanted to contest an equal number of seats vis-a-vis the RJD. Sensing the ground reality, Bihar Congress campaign committee chairman Akhilesh Prasad Singh last week announced 11 seats, which irked RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, who reportedly informed top Congress leaders in Delhi that it was wrong to make anything public without it being finally decided.

However, senior RJD leader Alok Mehta downplayed reports of deadlock over seat-sharing in the Grand Alliance. He told Newsclick that the seat sharing process was in the final stages. “We are talking to each other, including Left parties, for seat sharing… Everything will be final by Wednesday”.

According to sources in RJD and Congress, Lalu Prasad, who is in jail in connection with the fodder scam, has finally approved the much-awaited seat sharing of Grand Alliance.

As per the formula, RJD will contest less than 20 seats, the Congress 10 or 9 and the remaining seats will be contested by the other allies, including the Left parties.

Satyanarayan Singh, state secretary of CPI, has already announced that with or without support of the Grand Alliance, the CPI will field former JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar from Begusarai.

The CPI(ML) has announced the name of its candidate from Ara. “We are still in talks with RJD over seat sharing but party has declared Rajkumar Yadav as candidate from Ara seat. We have decided to contest at least from Ara, Siwan and Jehanabad seats” party leader Kunal said.

Congress and RJD leaders admitted here that they want to keep Left parties in the Grand Alliance in view of their strong pockets of influence in over a dozen seats.