In order to unite against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, the Congress started formal seat-sharing negotiations with its allies in Bihar, the Janata Dal (United) and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) on Sunday. The goal is to arrive at a “reasonable and respectable” arrangement.
Leaders of the Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee (BPCC) said that following multiple rounds of internal discussions, the Congress’s five-member national alliance committee (NAC), led by senior leader Mukul Wasnik, began seat-sharing negotiations with authorised leaders of the JD(U) and the RJD in New Delhi.
“The NAC is armed with statistics of past elections, party workers’ aspirations and worked out winnability factors for each and every seat before embarking on the seat-sharing exercise. We are ready to compromise but not willing to sacrifice everything for the sake of keeping INDIA (Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance) bloc intact,” a senior AICC leader familiar with the development said, requesting anonymity.
The senior leader stated that the first round of talks went well and that the party was expecting that discussions with JD(U) leader Sanjay Kumar Jha and RJD leader Manoj Jha would result in a solution that could be agreed upon by everybody.
Everything is good. Following the initial round of discussions at the AICC office in Delhi, Manoj Jha declared, “The talks were positive.”
Bihar’s ruling grand alliance leaders had earlier hinted that the JD(U) and the RJD would likely receive 17 of the 40 Lok Sabha seats in the state. In the general elections, the Communist Party of India (Marxist Leninist) Liberation may win one seat while the Congress is expected to win five.
The Congress is aiming to complete the seat-sharing arrangements with other parties of the opposition INDIA bloc across the country by the month-end.
“Five Lok Sabha seats for the Congress party in Bihar are too less to be contented for the party workers. We had contested nine seats [in 2019] and won one in alliance with the RJD & left parties. The JD(U) had contested 17 seats as part of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and won 16. Forgoing any sitting seat is certainly a challenging thing for any party. This time, however, the situation is different and so are the challenges,” the senior AICC leader cited above said.
“But, the Congress, which is striving hard to counter the BJP everywhere in the country, won’t be willing to let the party workers down,” the leader added.
The opposition alliance’s goal in Bihar is to stop the BJP’s rampage, as the NDA secured 39 out of 40 seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Each of the 17 seats the BJP ran for was won. The united Lok Janshakti Party won six, but it has since divided into two groups.
A Bihar Congress politician who is now in New Delhi stated that the party would undoubtedly strive to secure a “honourable deal” in the seat-sharing exercise, which may be not less than six or seven seats, citing the “positive mood” of negotiations at the AICC office. The Bihar PCC leader declined to be identified but stated, “This is a reasonable demand, as the Congress needs to give representation to each section of society.”
