Bihar Grand Alliance: Picture still unclear on seat sharing

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New Delhi, Sep 27 (IANS) After the announcement of Bihar election, the Grand Alliance is racing against time to seal the seat sharing deal this month as the smaller partners are looking for a larger share.

The Congress being the national party wants all the allies to be together to keep a united front against the NDA.

Congress state in-charge Shaktisinh Gohil refused to comment on the status of the alliance but said it will be done soon. Sources say RJD is not willing to concede more seats to the smaller parties.

There are differences within the alliance on who will lead it as RJD is consistently pushing Tejashwi Yadav as the CM face but RLSP led by Upendra Kushwaha is not ready for it.

RJD which is the largest party in the state does not want to give seats to the smaller parties like CPI-ML, RLSP and VIP, but these parties are demanding more seats than their strength and capability, said an RJD leader.

Congress which has 27 MLAs also wants to contest on 70 seats as during the last election it had contested 41 seats, but in 2015 RJD and JDU contested on 100 seats each with RJD winning 80.

But RJD is asserting that only its vote is transferable and no other party can transfer its votes.

Gohil on Friday had said, "There is no harm in any party propagating its leaders name for the Chief Minister but we will sit and decide on the issue that which way we will go with CM face or no face."

RLSP is upset over delay in seat sharing agreement and has conveyed to the Congress leadership. Gohil said that there is no problem within the alliance and everything is smooth.

But sources say that there is major hiccup within the alliance as RJD is claiming all the seats which could be won by the alliance and leaving seats which are tough to win to the smaller partners.

The fate of the alliance depends on how fast the final agreement is reached on both the issues as already HAM leader Jitan Ram Manjhi has joined NDA citing differences.

Congress, RJD, RLSP, VIP and Left parties are set to challenge NDA in Bihar if things go on track.

In 2015 Bihar Assembly elections, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) emerged as the largest party by winning 80 seats while the ruling Janata Dal-United won 71 seats and the Congress won 27. The BJP managed to win 53 seats, followed by two seats by the LJP and one seat by Jitan Ram Manjhi-led Hindustani Awam Morcha-Secular, others won 10 seats in the state

The BJP despite winning only 53 seats got the maximum percentage of vote share with 24 per cent, followed by the RJD with 18 per cent and JD-U at 17 per cent. The Congress managed to get seven per cent vote share and LJP got around 4.8 per cent vote share.

--IANS

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