The seat-sharing talks have stalled over the Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP), led by Mukesh Sahni, which is demanding 25 seats.
New Delhi:The stalemate within the I.N.D.I.A. bloc continues as smaller parties persist with demands for more seats in the upcoming Bihar Assembly elections. To break the impasse, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and senior leader Rahul Gandhi spoke to RJD patriarch Lalu Prasad Yadav. The Congress high command also held several rounds of meetings at Kharge’s residence.
The seat-sharing talks have stalled over the Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP), led by Mukesh Sahni, which is demanding 25 seats. As a result, the RJD and Congress deferred the planned announcement of seat distribution. The RJD, which is coordinating with other alliance partners, has made a final offer of 18 seats to the VIP.
Other allies, including the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) and the LJP (Paras faction) led by Pashupati Kumar Paras, are also seeking more seats. The RJD has offered JMM two seats against its demand for 12, and two to the LJP (Paras) faction, which initially sought five. Alliance insiders said the RJD and Congress might together give up two seats to accommodate these allies.
The Congress and RJD have, in principle, agreed to contest 60 and 140 seats respectively. However, if the VIP remains firm on its demand, both major partners are expected to adjust further. VIP spokesperson Sunil Singh said, “There were some complications regarding seat sharing. Rahul Gandhi ji intervened and assured that a solution would be reached through mutual consensus.”
Meanwhile, the RJD and Congress have begun allotting party symbols for undisputed seats from Wednesday. Insiders indicated that all alliance issues would be resolved soon. The CPI(ML)L candidates have started filing nominations for 18 seats agreed upon out of 19 offered by the RJD. The Left party, which had initially demanded 30 seats, now expects 3-4 more. Alliance managers have argued that all parties had to sacrifice seats to accommodate newcomers like VIP, LJP (Paras), and JMM.
Interestingly, when the Congress distributed party symbols, no national or prominent leader was present. Candidates filed their nominations without the usual participation of senior leaders — a rare occurrence for the party.
