RJD, Congress Work Out Seat Sharing In Bihar For Lok Sabha Polls
The Mahagathbandhan in Bihar is stitching together a coalition to defeat the BJP in the 2019 general elections.
Even as the National Democratic Alliance resolves the thorny seat-sharing issue in Bihar, rival Mahagathbandhan is busy stitching together a coalition to defeat the Bharatiya Janata Party-led combination in the 2019 general elections.
Efforts are on to distribute 40 Lok Sabha seats among Mahagathbandhan coalition partners comprising of Rashtriya Janata Dal, Congress, Nationalist Congress Party, Hindustani Awam Morcha, the Left and Sharad Yadav. Senior leaders of the constituent parties have been meeting away from the media glare to discuss seat sharing based on “realistic” ground level strength in each constituency, sources in the RJD, Congress and HAM said.
HAM President and former Bihar Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi had a fruitful meeting with United Progressive Alliance Chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Congress President Rahul Gandhi in Delhi early this week, its spokesman Danish Rizwan told PTI.
Congress general secretary-in-charge of organisation, Ashok Gehlot had met Lalu Prasad in Patna on July 12. Lalu’s son Tejashwi Yadav has met Rahul Gandhi several times.
Sources said as per talks so far, out of the 40 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar, Lalu Prasad’s RJD could get almost half.
The Congress would get 10, HAM and RLSP 4 each, NCP and Left would get one seat each. Veteran socialist leader Sharad Yadav might field his son on RJD symbol from Madhepura, they claimed.
The Congress is seeking more seats claiming that its support base has increased in the state after the 2015 Assembly election. “The Congress wants to field its candidates in more than 12 seats it had fought in 2014 in alliance with RJD,” state chief spokesman HK Verma said.