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Patna, October 18 (IANS) Even after the first round of nominations is over, the grand alliance in Bihar has failed to reach a consensus on seat sharing. As a result, the alliance’s eight candidates are now in a direct contest against each other, highlighting deep rifts within the opposition faction.
The nomination process for the first phase of the 2025 Bihar Assembly elections ended on Friday, but the Grand Alliance – comprising RJD, Congress, CPI, CPI-ML, CPIM and VIP – is yet to formally announce its seat-sharing arrangement.
Despite the nomination deadline having passed, it is still not clear how many seats each constituent party will contest.
Internal disagreements have spoiled the coordination of the alliance.
So far, Congress has released the list of 48 candidates, while CPI (ML) has announced 18 candidates.
However, lack of coordination has led to a situation where allies are competing against each other in the very first phase of the elections.
In at least eight constituencies, Grand Alliance partners have fielded rival candidates.
RJD has given ticket to Bahubali Munna Shukla’s daughter Shivani Shukla from Lalganj.
As soon as she got the party symbol, Shivani filed her nomination along with her mother Annu Shukla.
However, Congress has also fielded Aditya Kumar Raja from the same seat, leading to a direct inter-alliance clash in Lalganj.
Apart from Lalganj, RJD’s Ajay Kushwaha is contesting against Congress’s Sanjeev Kumar in Vaishali.
In Tarapur, RJD’s Arun Shah is contesting against VIP’s Sakaldev Bind.
In Bachhwara (Begusarai), CPI’s Awadhesh Rai is competing against Congress’s Garib Das.
On Gaura Bauram, RJD’s Afzal Ali is contesting against VIP’s Santosh Sahani.
In Rajapakad, CPI’s Mohit Paswan is contesting against Congress’s Pratima Das.
In Rosera, CPI’s Laxman Paswan is contesting against Congress’ BK Ravi and another seat where Grand Alliance constituents are contesting against each other.
Instead of taking on the NDA, the Grand Alliance partners seem to be fighting among themselves, sending a confusing message to their supporters and potentially weakening their electoral prospects.
For the last 10 days, intense brainstorming has been going on from Patna to Delhi on the seat sharing formula.
Rahul Gandhi and Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge reportedly tried to pacify several unhappy leaders, but their efforts failed to yield any concrete results.
As the deadline approached, the situation became chaotic – parties started distributing election symbols without official announcement and candidates rushed to file nominations at the last minute.
–IANS
AJK/UK