Amid seat-sharing talks in the Mahagathbandhan for the Bihar Assembly polls, key constituents such as the Congress and the Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP) seem to have hardened their stance, while the expected entry of two more parties into the Opposition alliance — the Pashupati Kumar Paras-headed Rashtriya Lok Janshakti Party (RLJP) and Hemant Soren’s Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) — have made the negotiations trickier.
Riding on the perceived success of Rahul Gandhi’s Voter Adhikar Yatra across Bihar, the Congress is said to be pressing for at least 70 seats — the number of seats it had contested in the 2020 polls, when the party won just 19 seats.
The Congress’s senior ally RJD won 75 seats out of 144 it contested in the 2020 polls, emerging as the single largest party in the 243-member House. The NDA had then returned to power by winning 125 seats as against the Mahagathbandhan’s 110, which was widely attributed to the Congress’s poor strike rate.
However, looking to turn a page in the wake of Rahul’s yatra, which drew crowds across several regions of the state, the Congress has stepped up bargaining for its “respectable share” including “winnable seats”, sources said.
Days after RJD leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav reiterated his claim of being the Mahagathbandhan’s chief ministerial face, All India Congress Committee (AICC) leader in charge of Bihar, Krishna Allavaru, said in Delhi Wednesday that “people of Bihar would decide the CM”. Allavaru’s comment was seen in political circles as part of the Congress’s bid to keep the RJD on its toes.
A Bihar Congress leader said: “Our top leaders have rejuvenated our Bihar cadre through recent political campaigns, especially Vote Adhikar Yatra. We were also able to come off as a unified alliance. RJD must treat us with respect, which we deserve as a national party. RJD should also look into Congress winning three seats in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls vis-a-vis RJD’s four seats. Our performance in 2020 Assembly polls cannot be the sole criterion for the seat allotment”.
On his part, Allavaru also said that to accommodate new allies, all Mahagathbandhan parties should be willing to give up seats from their kitty and that a balance between “good” and “bad” seats must be maintained. Following the induction of the RLJP and JMM, the Mahagathbandhan would have eight constituents, with its existing allies including the CPI(ML) Liberation, CPM, CPI and VIP besides the RJD and Congress.
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Ahead of a crucial Mahagathbandhan meeting next week to discuss seat-sharing, VIP chief Mukesh Sahani has also mounted pressure on the RJD, seeking his projection as the Deputy CM, sources said. Sahani has also been demanding 60 seats, although he may eventually settle for 20-25 seats, sources added.
An RJD leader said: “We had given VIP three Lok Sabha seats to contest in the 2024 polls. Going by that yardstick, Sahani should be a claimant of 18-20 seats. Now the question is, how to accommodate him — each ally has to concede from its share. Congress’s posturings are not good, even as it also appears to have reservations about accepting our leader Tejashwi as the alliance’s CM face.”
