The Mahagathbandhan announced seat-sharing one day after the deadline for registering nominations for the Lok Sabha's first phase of elections......
Digital desk: The seat-sharing agreement in Bihar for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections was finalized by the opposition's INDIA bloc, also known as Mahagathbandhan. The largest constituent of the Mahagathbandhan, the RJD, is going to field candidates for 26 seats, including Purnea and Hajipur. The Left will battle for five seats, while the Congress will contest nine, including Kishanganj and Patna Sahib.
Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Congress were in negotiations to share 40 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar, but Purnea and Katihar, two seats currently held by the Janata Dal (United), had become a subject of contention.
The announcement states that the Congress has been forced to give up the Purnea Lok Sabha seat, which newcomer Pappu Yadav, the husband of Rajya Sabha MP Ranjeet Ranjan, had hoped to run for. He said that Priyanka and Rahul Gandhi had assured him of a Congress ticket.
The seat will be contested by RJD, which did not formally announce that it had given the party ticket to JD(U) turncoat Bima Bharti.
The Mahagathbandhan announced seat-sharing one day after the deadline for registering nominations for the Lok Sabha's first phase of elections.
The RJD has fielded its candidates in all four seats going to polls in the first phase, in what has been resented by allies as a "unilateral move".
Tejashwi Yadav, the head of the RJD, was supposed to speak at the Mahagathbandhan press conference in Patna. Nevertheless, he stayed noticeably absent.
The names of candidates for seats where they haven't already been revealed would be disclosed soon, according to RJD national spokesman and Rajya Sabha MP Manoj Jha, who spoke at the news conference.
A senior leader of RJD earlier said, seeking anonymity “There are still some issues over the Katihar seat, which the Congress wants. Similarly, the RJD is keen on fighting the Purnea seat even as Congress is insisting on it. Our party is ready to allot eight to nine seats to the Congress but we cannot give up our claim on Purnea."
The announcement comes days after, Tejashwi Yadav had denied reports of conflicts between his party and the Congress, stating that a deal had been reached over seat sharing for the Bihar Lok Sabha elections and that a statement would be made in Patna shortly.
Tejashwi declared that the RJD, the Congress, and the Left will fight the Lok Sabha elections in Bihar jointly after attending an INDIA bloc meeting on Tuesday at Congress leader Mukul Wasnik's home in Parna. The discussion was about the state's seat-sharing formula.
He said that all of the constituencies are receiving a fair deal and that the INDIA bloc partners have verbally agreed on the seat-sharing plan. His comments connect with news that the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance in Bihar is experiencing discord over seat sharing.
The RJD's "unilateral" announcement of candidates for some Bihar seats that the Congress was interested in running for was reported to have upset the party. The National Democratic Alliance, which is made up of the BJP, JD(U), and LJP, won 39 seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
The deadline for submitting nominations for the four Bihar seats that will be up for election in the first round of the elections was Thursday. The elections are set to take place on April 19. In Bihar, the RJD has already announced candidates for seven seats.
Nikhil Kumar, a former governor and prominent member of the Congress, expressed his dissatisfaction with the way the RJD selected Abhya Kushwaha for the Aurangabad parliamentary seat, which he was eager to challenge. “A seat-sharing arrangement is done by taking into confidence all allies in a coalition. But, issuing tickets before a deal is finalized is not correct,” he told a TV channel.
Begusarai and the Karakat seats have been allocated to the CPI and CPI(ML), according to their statements; nevertheless, HT has learned that the Congress was not fully satisfied with the decision.
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