Our Correspondent
The opposition RJD-Congress led Grand alliance in Bihar has almost finalized the seat sharing deal for state assembly elections.
According to sorces Congress will contest on 62 to 68 of the 243 seats in the Bihar Assembly, The party has more than two dozen MLAs in the state assembly.
Earlier Congress had issued an ultimatum to the RJD. Bihar in-charge of the party Shaktisinh Gohil said that the Congress is prepared for any eventuality and can also contest the elections on its own.
The RJD has decided to form a grand alliance including three Left Front parties by allocating 19 seats to the CPI(ML). The Marxist-Leninists, who had insisted on at least 20 seats, has a support base among the sub-altern castses in the Bhojpur belt.
The CPI and the CPM will jointly contest on 10 seats. The RJD will accommodate Mukesh Saini’s VIP some seats from the remaining 145.
The formal announcement of the seat sharing formula may take place later in the day or on Sunday.
Meanwhile, hectic deliberations are still going on in NDA for finalization of seat sharing. Senior BJP leader and Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said the issue will be sorted out very soon. He said a co-ordination committee has been constituted by party national president JP Nadda to resolve the issue.
On the other hand LJP president Chirag Paswan is still adamant over the issue of their number of seats. Mr. Paswan has convened the party’s parliamentary board meeting in which he may take some final decision.
RJD wary of Cong-Nitish show in hung House
After its dismal show in last year’s Lok Sabha polls, in which it drew a blank, the RJD has decided on not giving enough leverage to allies at its cost. The party also feels the Congress will always be open to a post-poll alliance with Nitish Kumar in case of a hung Assembly. So the fewer seats the Congress contests on, the lesser leverage it will have after the results, according to RJD’s scheme of things.