Bihar polls: Grand Alliance announces seat-sharing deal, VIP walks out in protest - Hindustan Times
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Bihar polls: Grand Alliance announces seat-sharing deal, VIP walks out in protest

Hindustan Times, Patna | BySubhash Pathak | Edited by Sparshita Saxena
Oct 03, 2020 10:44 PM IST

As per the final agreement, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) has been allocated 144 out of 243 seats, which has the share of VIP and JMM.

The Grand Alliance (GA) on Saturday took the lead by announcing much-awaited seat-sharing deal among its constituents for the upcoming assembly elections in Bihar, scheduled to begin from October 28.

File photo: Rashtriya Janta Dal party leader Tejaswi Yadav.(A P Dube/Hindustan Times)
File photo: Rashtriya Janta Dal party leader Tejaswi Yadav.(A P Dube/Hindustan Times)

As per the final agreement, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) has been allocated 144 out of 243 seats, which has the share of Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP) and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), while the Congress did well this time and got 70 seats and Valmikinagar Lok Sabha constituency, the bypoll on which is scheduled to be held simultaneously.

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This is the best-ever seat deal that the Congress managed to strike since it allied with the RJD in the state. In 2005, the Congress was given 51 seats to contest under the RJD-led coalition. Sources said that the Congress would leave two seats for the NCP to contest. The left parties, including the CPI (ML), the CPI and the CPM, have been offered 29 seats. Of this, the CPI (ML) has been given the biggest share of 19 seats.

Announcing the final negotiation, RJD leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav thanked the coalition partners for reposing trust in his leadership and said that he stood with the side of people and would help them get rid of the corrupt, insensitive and inefficient regime led by CM Nitish Kumar in Bihar. He said the number of seats for the VIP and JMM would be announced in the next two-three days.

Also read: Chirag Paswan seeks people’s support for ‘Bihar first’ vision document; may fight polls independently

Visibly dejected at Tejashwi’s offer, VIP chief Mukesh Sahni walked out of the conference, accusing Tejashwi of betraying his faith by not declaring the seats for this party. “He backstabbed the party, which remained with him throughout,” said Sahni, adding that the next course of his party would be decided on Sunday.

Earlier, Tejashwi said that some of the leaders might find it hard to adjust as the all constituents were given fewer seats than their expectations, they should be ready to make a small sacrifice to save Bihar which was facing deep crisis and rule of anarchy. “Four rapes and five murders every hour sum up the scenario people of the state are grappling with,” he said, adding that migrant labours, students and the poor would not have forgotten the miseries they had undergone during the lockdown.

Reiterating his resolve to launch the process of filling up 10 lakh vacancies in the government at his first cabinet meeting, Tejashwi said the GA would emerge as a strong alternative for the people to the present dispensation which was founded on the betrayal of the mandate. “I am a theth (rustic) Bihari, who stands by his commitments,” said the RJD chief Lalu Prasad’s scion, adding that the fee to apply for the vacancies would be done away with.

Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee (BPCC) screening committee chairman Avinash Pande praised Tejashwi for his stint as deputy CM and said the GA wanted Bihar to prosper under his leadership. “He is son of Lau Prasad, who is better known as the messiah of the poor and leader of social justice not only in Bihar but in the country. A large number of young people associate themselves with Tejashwi with the hope for a better Bihar,” said the Congress leader, apparently projecting Tejashwi as the CM face of the GA.

Also read: Tejashwi Yadav Opposition’s CM face, Congress gets 70 seats

Exhorting the people to teach Nitish Kumar a befitting lesson for hijacking the popular mandate and topple, Pande claimed that farmers, youths, Dalits and the poor were deeply frustrated by the anti-people policies being pursued by the NDA out of owing to thumping majority accumulated by reeling out false promises and propagating falsehood.

RJD leader and elder son of the RJD chief, Tej Pratap Yadav, Congress legislature party leader Sadanand Singh and leaders of left parties were also present.

Watch an interesting conversation with Indian politician & former Union Minister of State, Milind Deora. HT’s senior journalist Kumkum Chadha talks to him about his life in politics & beyond. Watch Now!
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