At the meeting of the Congress screening committee held ahead of the Bihar polls, a section of party leaders expressed the view that the Congress should not wait any longer for the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) to make up its mind on the seat sharing formula for the mahagatbandhan (grand alliance). Sources said that, so far, no consensus has emerged within the party.
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The last date for nomination to the first phase of the Assembly election is October 8. Seventy-one seats in 16 districts go to polls in the first phase on October 28. The Congress screening committee had a meeting on Wednesday from 3 p.m till 7 p.m. Another round of meetings was held on Thursday.
The Congress has been demanding nearly 70 seats; the RJD wants to concede only close to 60. The Congress fought on 42 seats in the 2015 Assembly elections, with Janata Dal-United (JD-U) candidates fighting on a Congress symbol in a couple of them. The RJD’s argument is that the Congress does not have enough ground presence to even come up with a suitable candidate for all seats.
A senior Congress leader said, “We had almost finalised the seat arrangement, but in this land of Chanakya, the political situation changes every minute. It is not about the number, it is about the ideological commitment. The problem is with their attitude, which drove away Jitan Ram Manjhi [Hindustan Awam Morcha] and then Upendera Kushwaha [Rashtriya Lok Samata Party].”
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The party has also been egged on by others to patch up the third front, what a section of the party says is the “true secular front”. A narrative that the RJD is being manipulated by the Bharatiya Janata Party, since its president Lalu Prasad Yadav’s bail plea is up for a hearing on October 9, is also taking root.
Another section of the party feels that the divorce with the RJD should have happened six months and not six days ahead of the nominations. “We are back to square one and a repeat of what happened in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls is happening once more. This is the time to build the alliance not bicker,” another Congress leader added.
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The Communist Party of India-Marxist-Leninist (CPI-ML) has already announced candidates for 30 seats, with the mahagatbandhan (grand alliance) yet to make up its mind. In the second round of a meeting of the Congress screening committee, sources said that the party has decided to finalise candidates for the 27 seats that it currently holds in the Bihar Assembly for the upcoming elections.
