Due to the ongoing internal differences between Congress, RJD and Left parties over seat sharing in Bihar Assembly elections, the constituent parties of the ‘Indian National Development Inclusive Alliance’ (‘India’) alliance will contest against each other on at least 11 assembly seats in the state.
According to Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Congress leaders, the assembly constituencies where the opposition alliance partners are pitting against each other include Narkatiaganj, Vaishali, Rajapakar, Rosra, Bachhwara, Kahalgaon, Biharsharif, Karghar, Gaudaboram, Chainpur and Sikandra.
This time Congress is contesting on 61 seats, which is nine less than the last assembly elections, while RJD has fielded 143 candidates. Communist Party of India (CPI) is contesting on nine seats, CPI (ML) on 20 seats and CPI (Marxist) on four seats. CPI (ML) Liberation had the best performance within the ‘grand alliance’ in the 2020 elections. CPI (ML) Liberation had then won 12 out of 19 seats.
In Narkatiaganj seat, Congress’s Shashwat Kedar Pandey will face RJD’s Deepak Yadav, while in Vaishali, Congress’s Sanjeev Singh and RJD’s Ajay Kumar Kushwaha are facing each other.
In Rajapakar, Congress’s Pratima Kumari Das will face CPI’s Mohit Paswan, while in Bachhwara, there is a direct contest between Congress’s Shiv Prakash Garib Das and CPI’s Abhadesh Kumar Rai.
There will be a contest between Congress’s Umair Khan and CPI’s Shiv Kumar Yadav on Biharsharif seat, while RJD’s Afzal Ali Khan and Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP)’s Santosh Manjhi are facing each other on the Goudaboram seat.
At the same time, in Babubarahi, VIP’s Bindu Gulab Yadav and RJD’s Arun Kushwaha, in Chainpur RJD’s Brij Kishore Bind and VIP’s Bal Govind Bind, along with CPI’s Mahendra Gupta and Congress’s Santosh Mishra in Karghar are in the fray.
Elections for the state’s 243-member Assembly will be held in two phases on November 6 and 11, while the results will be declared on November 14.
Commenting on this situation, RJD’s Bihar unit spokesperson Mrityunjay Tiwari told ‘Bhasha’, “I am saying again that the allies of ‘India’ alliance should understand our compulsions. RJD is a party that contests elections only in Bihar and surrounding states… We do not ask for seats from our allies in the South or other states. Since we are the largest party in Bihar, we have the right to contest on maximum seats here.” He appealed to other alliance partners to withdraw their candidates from those seats where RJD has already declared candidates.
Responding to this, Congress’ Bihar unit spokesperson Asit Tiwari told ‘Bhasha’, “We have always followed the coalition dharma… I must say that RJD and Left parties declared their candidates when Congress had already released its list. We are confident that the situation will be resolved in a day or two.