PATNA: Losing friends fast, ‘Mahagathbandhan’ opposition in Bihar faces strong headwinds weeks before assembly elections with new allies harsh Bihar polls: ‘Mahagathbandhan’ seat-sharing talks meet with a An obstacle to come and the old people seek a greater participation in the electoral cake, practically blocking the talks about the distribution of seats among their voters.
The spearhead of the grand alliance, the RJD, which had emerged as the largest party in the last elections with 81 seats, had difficulty convincing its recalcitrant partners of its preeminence in the coalition and allowing it to contest 150 coalition seats. . the assembly of 243 members.
Former Prime Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi’s Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) has already left the coalition and returned to the ruling NDA.
The Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP) of former Union Minister Upendra Kushwaha seems willing to follow suit, and the party has already said that “all is not well” in the ‘Mahagathbandhan’, that its leader Lalu Prasad and the chief JD (U) Nitish Kumar had improvised to humiliate the BJP in the 2015 assembly polls.
Apart from RJD’s 81, Nitish Kumar’s JD (U) had won 70 seats and Congress 27. A cornered BJP had managed to win only 53 seats.
The RJD is fighting its first state elections in the absence of Lalu Prasad, who is serving a sentence in a Jharkhand prison after being convicted in multiple fodder scam cases.
Prasad’s son and heir apparent, Tejashwi Yadav, has already been declared the RJD’s top ministerial candidate, something that has not gone well with some alliance partners.
Coalition sources said the RJD, the main anti-NDA force in the state, is not ready to settle for fewer than 150 seats.
Congress, which happily played a second fiddle to RJD for many years, has been insisting on at least 75 seats, a demand that Lalu Prasad’s party is unwilling to admit.
“We have given Congress a proposal to contest 58 seats in the assembly and constituency of Valmikinagar Lok Sabha, which will soon be diverted,” RJD spokesman Mrityunjay Tiwari told PTI.
Another RJD spokesperson, Shakti Singh Yadav, also confirmed the numbers, saying that “one or two seats can be adjusted here and there.”
Bihar congressional spokesman Rajesh Rathor declined to make public the number of seats the party wants to contest, but maintained that it has definitely sought a higher proportion than was being offered.
“In the 2015 elections under the grand alliance, JD (U) and RJD had contested 101 seats each and Congress 41. Now that JD (U) has left the Mahagathbandhan and joined the BJP, the arithmetic of distribution of seats is only needed for the 101 seats in which Nitish Kumar’s party had fought.
“From that we expect a proportionate seating arrangement,” Rathor told PTI.
RJD’s Tiwari, however, isn’t convinced. He said Congress, being a national party, has the scope to contest elections in many states, but Bihar is the only strong territory for the state’s main opposition party.
RLSP chief Upendra Prasad Kushwaha is already camping in New Delhi, where he is believed to have met with top BJP leaders to finalize the modalities of his return to the NDA.
Kushwaha, according to sources in NDA circles, wants to contest the Valmikinagar Lok Sabha by election, which has been necessary after the death of MP JD (U) Baidyanath Mahto.
Sources from Bollywood set designer Mukesh Sahni’s Vikassheel Insan Party (VIP) said that with the reduction in the number of alliance partners, the party wants to contest a respectable number of seats. As an ally of Mahagathbandhan, he ran candidates in three places in the Lok Sabha polls, but was left blank.
Even RJD’s partner in Jharkhand, JMM, has expressed his enthusiasm for being part of the grand alliance and running candidates in some seats.
Jharkhand Prime Minister Hemant Soren had recently met with Lalu Prasad in Ranchi and it emerged that the two had discussed the issue.
The RJD also hopes to incorporate the three left-wing parties: CPI-ML, CPI and CPI-M.
Of these, CPI-ML only has sources of influence and three MLAs in the outgoing assembly.
However, he is upset by the RJD’s ‘nakaratmak’ (negative) approach in taking opposition parties with him, including potential allies like the left.
“The CPI-ML has been contesting around 100 seats on its own. But for the sake of unity among the anti-NDA forces, we first reduced our demand to 50 seats and finally to 25.
“But the RJD has a negative approach, as they do not want us to have electoral districts like Paliganj, Sandesh and Obra that are outside the traditional seats,” said CPI-ML secretary Kunal.
“The RJD’s logic about our traditional seats is that it ran candidates there in the 2015 elections and therefore cannot leave them for others. But you must understand that in 2015 they fought in the elections to make Nitish Kumar the prime minister. while now they want to remove him from power, “he told PTI.
Kunal said his party may decide to go alone to the meetings if the RJD remains intransigent and refuses to adapt to the demand of the ultra-left party.
Let us leave alone moving forward the seat-sharing talks with existing and likely allies, the Mahagathbandhan remains an amorphous entity weeks before the first phase of the polls on October 28, a situation that will make the NDA’s rival camp, in any case it looks good. , much happier.
The three-phase elections in Bihar will be held on October 28, November 3 and 7. Votes will be counted on November 10.
The spearhead of the grand alliance, the RJD, which had emerged as the largest party in the last elections with 81 seats, had difficulty convincing its recalcitrant partners of its preeminence in the coalition and allowing it to contest 150 coalition seats. . the assembly of 243 members.
Former Prime Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi’s Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) has already left the coalition and returned to the ruling NDA.
The Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP) of former Union Minister Upendra Kushwaha seems willing to follow suit, and the party has already said that “all is not well” in the ‘Mahagathbandhan’, that its leader Lalu Prasad and the chief JD (U) Nitish Kumar had improvised to humiliate the BJP in the 2015 assembly polls.
Apart from RJD’s 81, Nitish Kumar’s JD (U) had won 70 seats and Congress 27. A cornered BJP had managed to win only 53 seats.
The RJD is fighting its first state elections in the absence of Lalu Prasad, who is serving a sentence in a Jharkhand prison after being convicted in multiple fodder scam cases.
Prasad’s son and heir apparent, Tejashwi Yadav, has already been declared the RJD’s top ministerial candidate, something that has not gone well with some alliance partners.
Coalition sources said the RJD, the main anti-NDA force in the state, is not ready to settle for fewer than 150 seats.
Congress, which happily played a second fiddle to RJD for many years, has been insisting on at least 75 seats, a demand that Lalu Prasad’s party is unwilling to admit.
“We have given Congress a proposal to contest 58 seats in the assembly and constituency of Valmikinagar Lok Sabha, which will soon be diverted,” RJD spokesman Mrityunjay Tiwari told PTI.
Another RJD spokesperson, Shakti Singh Yadav, also confirmed the numbers, saying that “one or two seats can be adjusted here and there.”
Bihar congressional spokesman Rajesh Rathor declined to make public the number of seats the party wants to contest, but maintained that it has definitely sought a higher proportion than was being offered.
“In the 2015 elections under the grand alliance, JD (U) and RJD had contested 101 seats each and Congress 41. Now that JD (U) has left the Mahagathbandhan and joined the BJP, the arithmetic of distribution of seats is only needed for the 101 seats in which Nitish Kumar’s party had fought.
“From that we expect a proportionate seating arrangement,” Rathor told PTI.
RJD’s Tiwari, however, isn’t convinced. He said Congress, being a national party, has the scope to contest elections in many states, but Bihar is the only strong territory for the state’s main opposition party.
RLSP chief Upendra Prasad Kushwaha is already camping in New Delhi, where he is believed to have met with top BJP leaders to finalize the modalities of his return to the NDA.
Kushwaha, according to sources in NDA circles, wants to contest the Valmikinagar Lok Sabha by election, which has been necessary after the death of MP JD (U) Baidyanath Mahto.
Sources from Bollywood set designer Mukesh Sahni’s Vikassheel Insan Party (VIP) said that with the reduction in the number of alliance partners, the party wants to contest a respectable number of seats. As an ally of Mahagathbandhan, he ran candidates in three places in the Lok Sabha polls, but was left blank.
Even RJD’s partner in Jharkhand, JMM, has expressed his enthusiasm for being part of the grand alliance and running candidates in some seats.
Jharkhand Prime Minister Hemant Soren had recently met with Lalu Prasad in Ranchi and it emerged that the two had discussed the issue.
The RJD also hopes to incorporate the three left-wing parties: CPI-ML, CPI and CPI-M.
Of these, CPI-ML only has sources of influence and three MLAs in the outgoing assembly.
However, he is upset by the RJD’s ‘nakaratmak’ (negative) approach in taking opposition parties with him, including potential allies like the left.
“The CPI-ML has been contesting around 100 seats on its own. But for the sake of unity among the anti-NDA forces, we first reduced our demand to 50 seats and finally to 25.
“But the RJD has a negative approach, as they do not want us to have electoral districts like Paliganj, Sandesh and Obra that are outside the traditional seats,” said CPI-ML secretary Kunal.
“The RJD’s logic about our traditional seats is that it ran candidates there in the 2015 elections and therefore cannot leave them for others. But you must understand that in 2015 they fought in the elections to make Nitish Kumar the prime minister. while now they want to remove him from power, “he told PTI.
Kunal said his party may decide to go alone to the meetings if the RJD remains intransigent and refuses to adapt to the demand of the ultra-left party.
Let us leave alone moving forward the seat-sharing talks with existing and likely allies, the Mahagathbandhan remains an amorphous entity weeks before the first phase of the polls on October 28, a situation that will make the NDA’s rival camp, in any case it looks good. , much happier.
The three-phase elections in Bihar will be held on October 28, November 3 and 7. Votes will be counted on November 10.
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