RJD +JMM = 144
INC =70+1 (Loksabha)
CPI Maley =19,
CPI = 6
CPM = 4
AMN / PATNA
Finally the RJD-led opposition Grand Alliance in Bihar has arrived at a seat-sharing deal for the forthcoming state assembly elections.
RJD’s chief ministerial candidate Tejashwi Yadav on Saturday announced that RJD will contest on 144 seats while Congress has been given 70 seats. Besides, a total of 29 seats have been allocated to three Left parties—CPI-ML (19), CPI (6), CPM (4)—to contest.
The RJD that will contest 144 seats has left half-a-dozen seats to Mukesh Sahni’s Vikas-sheel Insaan Party (VIP). Two seats could be given to the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM). The RJD, at present, has 81 seats in the 243-member Assembly.
But, the multi-party alliance suffered a jolt when a minor constituent Vikashheel Insaan Party (VIP) floated by Mukesh Sahani, a former Bollywood set designer, announced a dramatic exit alleging betrayal. At a press conference, 30-year-old Yadav, son of Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav, announced the number of seats allocated to the Congress, the CPI(ML), the CPI(M) and the CPI, and said his party will contest from 144 assembly constituencies.
The RJD agreed to accommodate VIP, its alliance partner since the Lok Sabha polls last year, and JMM, its ally in adjoining Jharkhand, from its own quota of seats. Yadav said the RJD will declare in another two to three days the seats it will be giving to the two parties from its quota.
Bihar has a 243-member Assembly. The RJD had won 81 seats in 2015 while the Congress bagged 27.
Mukesh, who considers himself as ‘Son of Mallah’, fumed at the seat sharing formula after other alliance leaders had left the news conference venue. Earlier, there was speculation that VIP party, which claims support among the fishermen community, will be getting around half-a-dozen seats.