Congress-CPI-Ml on Seat Sharing: Before the Bihar Assembly elections 2025, there has been a lot of fierce fierce fierce in the grand alliance regarding ‘seat sharing’. The largest ally, the Left party Indian Communist Party-Marxist-Leninist (CPI-ML) has given strict ‘advice’ to the Congress not to demand more seats than its ‘status’. CPI-ML general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya said that the Congress contested 70 seats in 2020 and won only 19, which was more than his ‘position’. His statement is a sign of the growing ‘wrangling’ in the Grand Alliance, especially when Tejashwi Yadav missed only 12 seats on becoming the Chief Minister.
Why did Congress get ‘advice’?
Dipankar Bhattacharya said clearly, “I have seen the news of some Congress leaders demanding about 70 seats. But last time he fought in 70 seats and won only 19.” He gave the example of the 2015 election, when the Congress fought 40 seats and won 27, which he described as a ‘good strike rate’. Bhattacharya’s statement suggests that both leftist party and RJD do not want the 2020 mistake to be repeated again when the grand alliance was away from power due to poor performance of the Congress.
‘What happened last time’?
A major reason for the defeat of the Grand Alliance in the 2020 assembly elections is considered a poor performance of the Congress.
Congress: Fought 70 seats and only 19 won, the strike rate was 27%.
CPI-ML: Fought just 19 seats and won 12, the strike rate was 63%.
RJD: 75 won by fighting 144 seats, the strike rate was 52%.
Many RJD leaders still believe that if the Congress had fought fewer seats and their strike rate would have been good, Tejashwi Yadav would have become the Chief Minister. Congress leaders argue on this that RJD gave them most of the seats that were not worthy of winning.
‘Screw’ in NDA too
This ‘seat sharing’ screw is not only stuck in the grand alliance. Even in the NDA camp, there is no agreement between BJP and JDU about seats. The issue was discussed between Home Minister Amit Shah and CM Nitish Kumar in Patna on Thursday. This shows that the divide of ‘seats’ is a big challenge in both coalitions, and who will be able to deal with this challenge better, he will be able to win the election. Now it has to be seen what the Congress reacts to Dipankar Bhattacharya’s ‘Adhit’ and will the seat share in the Grand Alliance.