Opposition finalizes seat-sharing in Bihar, 1 constituency to see friendly fight

Both the Congress and the RJD will field candidates from the Purnea seat.

New Delhi:

The opposition Mahagathbandhan (or grand alliance) in Bihar has finalized the seat allocation for the Lok Sabha elections after being shocked by the Janata Party’s unilateral announcement of candidate lists for four constituencies for the first phase of polls. However, one constituency will still witness a friendly fight between the Lalu Yadav-led RJD and the Congress party, which is also an ally of the Indian bloc.

The RJD, which did not win a single seat in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, will contest from 26 of Bihar’s 40 seats, while the Congress bagged nine seats and the Left parties were left with just five Seats – Three seats for CPIML and one seat each for CPI and CPM. Seat-sharing talks, which were expected to become much easier since Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal United returned to the NDA, turned out to be protracted but finally concluded A solution.

At a press conference on Friday, RJD Rajya Sabha MP Manoj Jha, surrounded by Congress and other party leaders, said, “We have reached a unanimous decision and we will win”.

However, experts say the Congress failed to deliver a hard bargain, as is evident from the entry of seats like Purnea, Supaul and Madhepura into the RJD’s kitty. Jan Adhikar Party (Loktantrik) chief Pappu Yadav last week merged his party with the Congress and is expected to get nomination from the Purnea seat, while his wife Ranjeet Ranjan, who won the Supaul seat as a Congress candidate in 2014, has won the nomination from the Purnea seat. There for the 2019 election.

NDTV spoke to Mr Yadav who said he will file nomination as Congress candidate from Punea and the RJD has almost finalized newcomer Bima Bharti, who joined the party from JDU, as its candidate. In this way, the stage for friendly struggle in the constituency has been set.

The CPI will contest from Begusarai, which fielded former Jinan University students’ union president Kanhaiya Kumar last time. Mr. Kumar is now in Congress.

Bihar is crucial for the Indian alliance as it sent the fourth highest number of MPs to the Lok Sabha, with the NDA winning 39 of the 40 seats in 2019. The remaining seats went to the Congress party. The opposition alliance was shaken earlier this year after Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar defected again and returned to the NDA, but is still seen as having a stronger position in the state. stronger during the second election.

The state will vote in all seven phases of the upcoming elections, which will begin on April 19 and end on June 1, with counting of votes taking place on June 4.