The fight over seat sharing is deepening within the opposition I.N.D.I.A. block as the two key constituents of its Bihar unit, Congress and RJD, are putting pressure on each other before a seat-sharing deal.
On Tuesday, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav launched ‘Bihar Adhikar Yatra’, which will cover 73 assembly seats spanning 10 districts, including Yadav-dominated Jehanabad, Patna, Madhepura, Saharsa, Supaul and Vaishali. These districts were left untouched during the ‘Vote Adhikar Yatra’ in which Tejashwi stood shoulder to shoulder with Rahul Gandhi.
However, the absence of Congress in Tejashwi’s ‘Bihar Adhikar Yatra’ has set tongues wagging. A few days ago, Tejashwi Yadav declared at a public meeting in Kanti, Muzzaffarpur, that he would contest on all 243 assembly seats.
Earlier, Congress put a condition of finalising the seat-sharing deal and common manifesto before declaring Tajashwi, the alliance’s chief ministerial candidate. Later, the party’s Bihar in-charge Krishna Allavaru went on to say that the people of Bihar will decide the chief ministerial candidate.
The seat sharing gets trickier this time for Bihar unit of I.N.D.I.A. as it needs to work out seat-sharing considering the inclusion of Mukesh Sahni’s VIP, Hemant Soren’s JMM and Pashupati Paras’ LJP in the coalition. On the other hand, CPI ML also staking claims on 40- 45 seats. The left party won 12 seats out of 19 it had contested in the 2020 assembly election.
Moreover, it would be interesting to see how Mukesh Sahni could be contained, given his very high ambitions. In 2020, he had switched over to NDA in the last hours over his demand for a deputy chief ministerial post and a greater number of seats. He has been reiterating those demands once again.
During the last assembly election, Congress’s winning strike rate was quite abysmal as only 19 of the total 70 candidate could win their seats. Congress was blamed for the opposition coalition’s narrow defeat in the election. However, Congress argued that most of the seats it had handed out were NDA strongholds.
According to party insiders, this time Congress is more concerned about the winnability factor than the number of seats. However, the party is bargaining for adding as many seats as possible on top of 50. According to reports, the party may agree on lower seats on condition of a deputy chief ministerial candidate from the party.
Many Congress leaders are ecstatic, given Rahul Gandhi’s massive crowd-puller march in the state. They hope that the party will benefit from that and perform much better this time.
Yet, key leaders of both parties have downplayed speculation about a rift in the alliance and said the seat-sharing deal will be finalised soon. According to sources, AICC leadership will meet in New Delhi on 19th September to deliberate on election strategies, in which Tejashwi Yadav is also invited.
