The Rashtriya Janata Dal-led Mahagathbandhan is inching closer to finalising the seat-sharing deal for the upcoming Bihar assembly election. Earlier, the key constituents of the alliance, the RJD and Congress, were at odds over securing more seats and announcing the CM face.
However, according to reports, both parties agreed to give up around a dozen seats each from their respective tallies in the 2020 assembly election. This was necessary due to the inclusion of three new parties in the Mahagathbandhan: Mukesh Sahni’s VIP, Pashupati Kumar Paras’s LJP, and Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren’s JMM.
According to the reported seat-sharing arrangement, the RJD will contest on 130-132 seats, and Congress will contest on 56-58 seats. In the previous assembly election, the RJD contested on 144 seats and won 75, while the Congress contested 70 seats and won only 19.
Notwithstanding its abysmally poor performance in the previous assembly election, the Congress received a boost this time as party leader Rahul Gandhi led a high crowd puller, ‘Voter Adhikar Yatra’, in the state. The 17-day-long road show, which covers 25 districts, becomes a shot in the arm for the Congress rank and file.
After this successful show, the party leadership is bargaining hard for winnable seats. It is widely believed within the party that the poor showing in the 2020 election was largely due to the fact that Congress was assigned very tough seats, as the majority of the 70 seats they contested were strongholds of NDA constituents.
According to the sources, there is a broad consensus on the number of seats in the Mahagathbandhan. Still, negotiations are underway for the allocation of seats based on the suitability of the candidates, rather than the party.
As far as smaller constituents are concerned, CPI ML contested on 19 seats and won 12 in the last election. Given its outstanding strike rate, the left party is seeking to double its 2020 count. However, it may have to settle for 6-8 more seats. The two other left-wing parties, the CPI and the CPI (M), are likely to retain their previous election figures of six and four seats, respectively.
Among the new entrants, VIP may contest on 12-14 seats, while LJP and JMM would get two seats each. It would be interesting to see the move of Mukesh Sahni, since during the previous election, he had switched over to the NDA at the eleventh hour. For the upcoming election, too, he has reiterated his demand for a very ambitious 60 seats and deputy chief ministership if the coalition comes to power. During a recent conclave, he has hinted that he may compromise on the number of seats but will stick to his demand for deputy chief ministership.
