Congress eyes grassroots pitch, likely to release seat-wise manifestos

The Congress plans micro-manifestoes for Bihar elections, focusing on local issues, alongside a joint manifesto with allies addressing key community concerns.

The Congress may bring out individual micro-level manifestoes for the constituencies its candidates will contest in the upcoming Bihar assembly elections, along with a joint manifesto of the Mahagathbandhan (grand alliance) partners, a party functionary aware of details said on Tuesday.

Congress eyes grassroots pitch, likely to release seat-wise manifestos

The constituency-wise manifestoes will highlight local issues and prescribe solutions for a focused campaign at the grassroots level, the Congress leader cited above said.

“We have already prepared draft manifestos for a large number of seats. Once the seat sharing is final, we will finalise the individual manifestoes for our seats. The process is ongoing,” the leader added.

The grand alliance — comprising the Rashtriya Janata Dal, Congress, Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation or CPI (M-L) Liberation, CPI(M), CPI, Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP) and other smaller allies — has so far brought out one manifesto for the Extremely Backward Classes (EBC) communities, which constitute 36% of the state’s population.

The upcoming joint manifesto of the Opposition alliance is expected to focus on economy, employment, women welfare and sops for youth, among other issues.

A section of the grand alliance, however, maintains that Congress’ manifestoes will have limited impact as the agenda of the RJD, being the largest ally and principal Opposition party in Bihar, will dominate the Opposition’s narrative in the two-phased assembly elections, scheduled on November 6 and 11.

According to grand alliance leaders, seat-sharing negotiations are still underway. On Tuesday, CPI leader D Raja met RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav for seat talks. After the meeting, Raja told HT: “We had a good discussion. The seat pact will be done soon. But he (Tejashwi) told me that there are new parties who will be accommodated.”

Two leaders aware of the details said the Congress might get 50-55 seats, but will have to accommodate IP Gupta’s India Inclusive Party on a couple of seats from its quota. In the 2020 assembly polls, the Congress fought in 70 seats but managed to win only 19. The CPI(ML), which won 12 of the 19 seats five years ago, has rejected the RJD’s offer of 19 seats and demanded around 30 seats, with additional seats in central Bihar, the leaders said. The other two left parties are expected to get six and four seats, same as in 2020.

“Tejashwi is keen to give 15-20 seats to the Vikassheel Insaan Party, which has a base among the Nishad voters,” a senior Congress leader said. In 2020, the VIP had won four of the 11 seats it contested as part of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).