Congress Calls For 65 Seats, RJD To Concede Only 57 In Bihar Poll
NEW DELHI: RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav met senior Congress leaders in New Delhi on Monday to discuss and finalize the seat-sharing arrangement for the upcoming Bihar Assembly elections. However, both the allies are yet to reach a consensus as the Congress is demanding 60 to 65 seats while the RJD is ready to accept only 55 to 57 seats.
According to sources, while the Congress remains firm on its demand, the RJD is reluctant to go beyond its offer. Disputes also continue over certain constituencies, including Kahalgaon and Saharsa. Congress had earlier contested from Kahalgaon and Bahadurpur but RJD now wants to field its candidates there.
People within the INDIA bloc said the outstanding issues are likely to be resolved in the next round of talks expected on Tuesday.
The meeting was held at Congress MP Phulo Devi Netam’s house; here Tejashwi Yadav along with his deputy and SC MP Sanjay Yadav met Congress Bihar in-charge Krishna Allavaru, party general secretary KC Venugopal and Bihar Congress chief Rajesh Ram.
Meanwhile, the Prashant Kishor-founded Jan Suraaj Party on Monday announced its second list of 65 candidates for the Bihar Assembly elections but withdrew its bid for the Raghopur seat, where Kishor was expected to challenge RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav.
Addressing a press conference, Kishor said the party has now fielded candidates for 116 of the 243 assembly seats in Bihar. “In the first list, we announced the candidates for 51 seats, and in the second list, we determined the candidates for 65 seats. The remaining candidates will be announced later,” he said. Political strategist-turned-politician Kishor said the list reflects the party’s commitment to inclusive representation. Of the announced candidates, 31 are from extremely weaker sections, 21 are from Other Backward Classes (OBCs) and 21 are Muslims.
The party fielded Kamlesh Paswan from Harnaut, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s traditional stronghold, but the CM did not contest there for three decades. Another notable candidate is Abhay Kant Jha, a lawyer who represented victims of the 1989 Bhagalpur communal riots; He will contest from Bhagalpur. Other prominent names include retired police officer Nasrullah Khan (Nokha, Rohtas), academic Shashikant Prasad (Phulwari) and Dr Shahnawaz (Barharia, Siwan). While Economist Navy Kishore Chowdhary will field from Bathnaha (SC) in Sitamarhi, Tathagat Harshvardhan will contest from Buxar, the candidate of his son Former Union Minister KK Tiwary.
Tiwary had served as a minister in Rajiv Gandhi’s Cabinet after being elected to the Lok Sabha in 1980 and 1984. Among Muslim candidates, Md. It stars Ekramul Haque (Thakurganj), Naaz Ahmad Khan aka Pappu Khan (Kesaria) and Aamir Haider (Bahadurpur). The party has nominated Bablu Soren for the ST reserved seat of Manihari in Katihar district. In its first list released last Thursday, the party nominated several prominent figures, including Bhojpuri singer Ritesh Ranjan Pandey (Kargahar) and Pritti Kinnar, a member of the third gender community (Bhorey, Gopalganj). Former Patna University and Nalanda Open University vice-chancellor KC Sinha, known for his popular mathematics books, will contest from Kumhrar (Patna), while retired IPS officer RK Mishra is the candidate from Darbhanga and senior advocate YV Giri from Manjhi.
