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Patna, October 17 (IANS) The ongoing rift within the grand alliance came to the fore on Friday when Shivani Shukla, daughter of powerful leader Munna Shukla, filed her nomination as RJD candidate from Lalganj assembly seat in Vaishali district, even though the seat was allotted to the Congress under the alliance agreement.
Congress had declared Aditya Kumar Raja as its official candidate from Lalganj.
However, tension prevailed at the sub-divisional office when Raja arrived to file his nomination along with Purnia MP Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav.
After submitting her nomination papers, Shivani Shukla publicly thanked RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav and Tejashwi Yadav for allowing her to contest the elections on RJD ticket.
Immediately after this, a scuffle started between the supporters of both the parties, due to which there was chaos in the area.
Later the situation was controlled after the intervention of security personnel.
This incident has once again raised serious questions on the unity and coordination within the Grand Alliance in Bihar.
While the first phase of nominations ended on Friday, the seat-sharing formula within the alliance remains unresolved.
Sources said the impasse stems from Congress’s insistence on contesting 70 seats, the same number of seats it had contested in the 2020 assembly elections, when it managed to win only 19 seats – a strike rate of 27 per cent.
RJD leaders led by Lalu Prasad Yadav and Tejashwi Yadav are reportedly not ready to repeat the 2020 arrangement, arguing that the poor performance of the Congress last time cost the Grand Alliance the majority mark of 122 seats.
Top leaders of the alliance, including Tejashwi Yadav, Dipankar Bhattacharya (CPI-ML) and Mukesh Sahni (VIP), held several rounds of meetings with Congress leaders in Delhi till October 15 to finalize the seat-sharing arrangements.
However, despite prolonged discussion, no consensus could be reached.
Both Tejashwi Yadav and Mukesh Sahni reportedly waited till Thursday before announcing the final formula, but talks remained inconclusive, deepening uncertainty within the grand alliance.
–IANS
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