After a lot of back and forth, the Mahagathbandhan in Bihar has sorted its seat-sharing arrangement. Sources have told The Daily Guardian that the RJD, Congress and CPI-ML have arrived at an agreement on seat sharing. According to sources, Congress has been given 65-68 seats and CPI-ML 19 seats out of 243 seats in the Bihar Assembly. At the same time, it is still being discussed to give 6 seats to the CPM and 4 seats to the CPI. The RJD will contest 135-140 seats. Mukesh Sahni’s Vikasheel Insan Party (VIP) will contest elections on 9 or 10 seats. However, its official announcement is yet to be made.
Earlier the RJD, the largest constituent of the grand alliance, had proposed 58 seats to the Congress. The party wanted to contest about 155 seats. The RJD had also offered the Lok Sabha seat of Valmikinagar to the Congress with 58 Assembly seats. RJD leader Shakti Singh Yadav had said that the party does not want to lose its big ally Congress, so it is also open to giving some more seats. However, the Congress should also understand the compulsions of the alliance.
If the RJD gives seats to the VIP and the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha from its quota, then the Congress will have to give seats to the Nationalist Congress Party from its quota.
At the same time, the RJD has begun the exercise of distributing election marks to its candidates. Out of 71 seats of the first phase, a quarter of the candidates have secured the election marks. On Thursday, such candidates came to 10, Circular Road and went with their election symbol form. Senior RJD leader Bhola Yadav said that the exercise to distribute election symbol has started.