Bihar RJD president Jagdanand Singh, state Congress chief Akhilesh Singh and others in Patna. PTI
Aksheev Thakur
New Delhi, March 29
INDIA bloc on Friday sealed the seat-sharing deal for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) will contest 26 of the state’s 40 Lok Sabha seats, while the Congress will field candidates on nine seats. The Left parties will contest five seats.
Constituencies parties will contest
- RJD: Gaya, Purnia, Nawada, Jahanabad, Buxar, Aurangabad, Banka, Jamui, Gopalganj, Darbhanga, Supaul, Madhepura, Araria, Hajipur, Patliputra, Valmiki Nagar, Sheohar, Ujiyarpur, Sitamarhi, Vaishali, Munger, Saran, East Chamaparan, Jhanjarpur, Siwan and Madhubani
- Congress: Patna Sahib, Kishanganj, Bhagalpur, Muzaffarpur, Samastipur, West Champaran, Patna Sahib, Sasaram and Maharajganj
- Left parties: Aarah, Karakat, Nalanda, Begusarai and Khagaria
The RJD did not cede to the Congress the Purnia Lok Sabha seat, which had been a bone of contention among the alliance partners.
Pappu Yadav, who recently merged his party with the Congress, wanted to contest from Purnia. Even after an official announcement of seat sharing, Yadav said he would contest from Purnia on the Congress symbol.
“Purnia is like God to me. I have spent my life here. The Congress makes sacrifices in alliance as personal ambitions never matter to the party. I am sure I will contest from Purnia on the Congress symbol,” he told reporters.
The RJD is said to have decided to field Bima Bharti from Purnia. Bharti had quit the JDU to join the RJD only on the condition of contesting from Purnia. However, the alliance is yet to announce the names of candidates for the 40 Lok Sabha seats.
Initially, the RJD was reluctant to give more than five seats to the Congress against the latter’s demand of 15 seats. It was later decided to give nine seats to the Congress. The other prominent seats allotted to the Congress include Patna Sahib and Kishanganj.
In 2009, actor Shekhar Suman contested the Lok Sabha election from Patna Sahib on the Congress ticket and lost to BJP’s Shatrughan Sinha. Sinha won the election on the BJP ticket in 2014. After joining the Congress, Sinha lost the seat to BJP’s Ravi Shankar Prasad in 2019.
The Congress will also contest Bhagalpur, Muzaffarpur, Samastipur, West Champaran, Patna Sahib, Sasaram and Maharajganj seats. While CPI-ML will contest from Aarah, Karakat and Nalanda, the CPI will field its candidate from Begusarai.
The RJD will contest from Gaya, Nawada, Jahanabad, Buxar, Aurangabad, Banka, Jamui, Gopalganj, Darbhanga, Supaul, Madhepura, Araria, Hajipur, Patliputra, Valmiki Nagar, Sheohar, Ujiyarpur, Sitamarhi, Vaishali, Munger, Saran, East Chamaparan, Jhanjarpur, Siwan and Madhubani Lok Sabha seats.
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