Bihar Congress chief Rajesh Ram said the spirit of workers are high after the success of Voter Adhikar Yatra, but that does not mean the party s would make other partners sacrifice their seats. Pasupati Kumar Paras-led Rashtriya Lok Janshakti Party (RLJP) and the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) will contest the upcoming assembly elections in Bihar under the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA), leaders familiar with the development after a meeting held at leader of the Opposition in assembly Tejashwi Prasad Yadav’s residence on Saturday.
While the RLJP would be allotted seats along with other coalition partners including Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Congress, Left parties, Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP), the JMM would be allocated seats earmarked for the RJD. Bihar Congress chief Rajesh Ram said the meeting focussed on seat-sharing was held in a cordial atmosphere and the constituent partners have reached a broad consensus on seat allotments. “Unlike the last elections, Congress and other parties would field their candidates in pockets of their influence,” said Ram.
Ram hinted that all main partners of the coalition will have to compromise on the number of seats they had contested in 2020 elections, as two-three new parties would join the INDIA bloc this time. The Congress leader also brushed aside any tiff between the RJD and the Congress over the number of seats post-Voter Adhikar Yatra, which had emboldened the party workers’ morale considerably. “The spirit of the party workers are very high after the grand success of Rahul Gandhi-led Voter Adhikar Yatra. But that does not mean that the Congress would make other partners sacrifice their seats,” said Ram, in an apparent bid to dispel any tussle between his party and the RJD over the number of seats.
Some of the INDIA bloc leaders told that the broad adjustment of seats has been done and seats to be allotted among the coalition partners have been mutually identified during the meeting with Tejashwi Prasad Yadav. “As things stand now, there could be one more meeting, preferably at the highest level between the RJD and the Congress to formally announce the seat-sharing agreement in the next couple of weeks,”said a senior RJD leader, wishing not to be named.
“We are discussing every seat. Our discussions are going very smoothly. We have to contest the elections under the leadership of Tejashwi Yadav (in the Mahagathbandhan) . There is no dispute regarding the seats,” said Mukesh Sahni, founder of the Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP).
Last time, the RJD had contested 144 seats, while the Congress had fielded its candidates on 70 seats, Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation 19 seats, CPI six and CPM four seats. It is said that the RJD might contest 122-124 seats, Congress 58-62, left parties 31-33, VIP 20-22, RLJP 5-7 and JMM 2-3 seats.
In the 2020 elections, RLJP was part of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and had contested and won three seats. However, it fell apart from the NDA after the BJP teamed up with LJP (Ram Vilas) led by Chirag Paswan and ignored the RLJP in the last Lok Sabha elections. Likewise, VIP also contested 11 seats under the NDA and won four seats. Later, a majority of VIP MLAs switched their loyalty and joined the BJP.
JMM spokesman Bablu Pandey said that their party had an agreement with the RJD for allocation of seats on the Jharkhand’s pattern. “In the Jharkhand assembly elections last year, seat-sharing was mainly done between the JMM and the Congress, and the JMM was allotted seats from the JMM quota,” he added.
Leaders of the Congress and Left parties said that there was no discussion other than that of the seat-sharing in the meeting. The RJD has proposed to take our yatra on the pattern of Rahul Gandhi’s Voter Adhikar Yatra and cover the districts left out in the previous campaign. The yatra is proposed to start from Sasaram on September 15. RJD chief spokesman Shakti Singh Yadav said that the yatra has been planned but details of the campaign are yet to be finalised. “Wait for the notification, which will clear everything,” he added.
There was a bit of confusion among leaders and workers of the INDIA bloc constituents whether the yatra led by Tejashwi Prasad Yadav would be a show of strength of the RJD or it would be participated by workers and leaders of other partners as well. “There was no talk about yatra in the meeting,” said Ram, adding that there is enough time to see how the RJD would plan the campaign.
