Grand alliance seals Bihar deal

TNS & Agencies
Patna, March 22

The Opposition ‘mahagathbandhan’ (grand alliance) in Bihar today announced its seat-sharing formula, under which the RJD will contest 20 of the 40 Lok Sabha seats and the Congress nine, leaving the remaining share for smaller allies.

While former Union minister Upendra Kushwaha’s Rashtriya Lok Samta Party (RLSP) will field candidates for five seats, Jitan Ram Manjhi’s HAM(S) and Mukesh Sahni’s Vikassheel Insan Party (VIP) will contest three seats each. 

The Lalu Prasad-led RJD will give one seat out of its quota of 20 to the Communist Party of India-Marxist Leninist (CPI-ML).

No seats have been left for the CPI and CPM, making it clear that former JNU Students’ Union president Kanhaiya Kumar, who is contesting from Begusarai, will not be supported by the alliance.

The Loktantrik Janata Dal (LJD), formed by former JD-U chief and NDA convener Sharad Yadav, will contest from Madhepura on the RJD symbol and merge with Lalu’s party after the polls. 

Bihar is going to the polls in all seven phases. The first phase is scheduled for April 11, for which nominations will be filed till March 25. 

The four constituencies going to the polls in the first phase will see HAM contesting on Gaya and Aurangabad seats, the RJD on Nawada and the RLSP on Jamui.

In 2014, the NDA won 31 seats, of which the BJP alone bagged 22. The JD-U contested alone then and won only two seats. The RJD won four seats, the Congress two and NCP 1. But NCP’s Tariq Anwar later rejoined the Congress. 

CPI: unfortunate

New Delhi: CPI general secretary Sudhakar Reddy said the failure of the grand alliance to accommodate the Left parties was “unfortunate” and did not bode well for the Opposition as a whole in the bigger scheme of creating an anti-BJP front. The party’s state leadership is scheduled to meet on March 24 to decide on its future course of action. PTI