Patna: Congress had the upper hand during the seat allocation in Mahagathbandhan (Grand Alliance) in Bihar as it got 70 seats.
According to sources in Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), the Congress applied pressure tactics to take 70 seats as RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav is lodged in Ranchi jail and Congress running the government in Jharkhand.
However, the RJD initially didn’t agree to give more than 58 seats to the Congress, sources said. Congress in 2015, contested Assembly elections on 41 seats and managed to win 27.
Sources also said that the RJD wanted to contest on 150 seats while CPI (ML) was also allocated four more seats whereas the RJD was not willing to allocate more than 15 seats.
“Compromising on seat sharing with Congress and CPI (ML) turn costly for RJD as it ignored two other alliance partners VIP and JMM. Mukesh Sahani, the president of VIP openly objected to seat sharing formula and walked out from the press conference on Saturday evening,” a RJD insider said requesting anonymity.
Earlier in the the event, Avinash Pandey, in-charge of Congress for Bihar assembly elections, said his party had joined hands with the RJD despite some differences to take on the NDA government.
“In 2015 Assembly election, the people of Bihar mandated us to run the government. It was Nitish Kumar, who hijacked the mandate and went with the BJP. People of Bihar will teach him a lesson this time,” Pandey said.
–IANS
