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New Delhi, Oct 16 (IANS) A day before the last date for filing nominations for the first phase of Bihar assembly elections, there seems to be uncertainty over the seat-sharing agreement, leading to the possibility of a “friendly fight” in some constituencies.
Among the grand alliance (Grand Alliance) partners, major constituents like Rashtriya Lok Dal (RJD), Congress and the Left are striving for a bigger stake, with smaller partners worried about their prospects. There are 243 seats in Bihar Legislative Assembly.
Meanwhile, the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) is also seeing some headwinds, with allies like Chirag Paswan-led Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) and Upendra Kushwaha’s Rashtriya Lok Morcha (RLM) competing for special seats.
The alliance proved beneficial for the Grand Alliance in the 2020 assembly elections. All except the Congress performed well, with the RJD emerging as the largest party and winning 75 of the 144 seats it contested, and the Left fielding candidates in 16 of the 29 constituencies.
India’s oldest party managed to win only 19 of the 70 seats it contested. This time the central leadership of Congress tried to generate some hope in the state unit by holding a working committee meeting in Patna last month.
Overall, the opposition once again has its eyes on the power of the state. The path to achieving that ambition may take some “friendly fights”. If it turns in that direction, whether it will prove decisive or not will depend on the final decision.
Observers say such competitions are not uncommon in India, where “friendly” fights have occurred either accidentally or deliberately.
According to available reports, the earliest example of such “friendly competition” can possibly be traced to Haryana. Before the 1987 Haryana Legislative Assembly election, Devi Lal had brought together the state’s opposition parties against the then ruling Congress government led by Bansi Lal. Left parties were also part of this anti-incumbency platform, where the Communist Party of India and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) were allotted one seat each.
In this alliance, while Devi Lal’s Lok Dal and BJP were the major partners, there was a conflict between Devi Lal and CPI(M) over contesting the Fatehabad seat of Hisar. Devi Lal was determined not to let his alliance lose even a single seat, so he asked the two partners to have a “friendly contest”.
For the record, BJP’s Balbir Singh Choudhary had defeated his political “friend”, CPI(M)’s Prithvi Singh Gorakhpuria by over 28,000 votes in that contest. In the final result, the alliance got 85 out of 90 seats.
A follow-up report described the Congress’s Haryana debacle as a “thunderbolt” that gave rise to “the new political superman of the North, NT Rama Rao”. According to the report, like Rama Rao in Andhra Pradesh, who led a regional party to power aimed at an assertive regional identity, Devi Lal came to represent Haryana’s fight against “gross injustice at the hands of the Centre”.
The players have changed, and sometimes the equation; While some coalitions overcame the consequences of “friendly battles” in later times, other coalitions suffered defeats, sometimes ending in secession.
Like the Grand Alliance, the parties joined hands in the Lok Sabha elections as the “Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance”, where the constituents themselves were involved in several non-friendly feuds. And finally, it could not pose any major threat to the BJP-led NDA.
–IANS
JB/SKP