Congress starts flexing muscles, seeks more seats to contest

PATNA: As the Election Commission has indicated that state assembly elections would be conducted on schedule time in October-November, Congress has started flexing muscles for more seats. Another Mahagathbandhan partner and HAM(S) chief Jitan Ram Manjhi has supported the Congress demand. RJD, which has projected party chief Lalu Prasad’s son Tejashwi Prasad Yadav as the CM face of the Mahagathbandhan, is unwilling to precipitate the issue into a conflict at this stage.
At a closed-door meeting attended by senior Congress leaders of the state here on Friday, party’s Rajya Sabha member Akhilesh Prasad Singh demanded more seats than RJD to contest the assembly elections. He also stressed that the leader of the Mahagathbandhan was not decided yet. “It has not been decided yet who will lead the opposition alliance. We will take a unanimous decision on the issue very soon,” Akhilesh told a news channel.
Speaking on the seat-sharing issue, Akhilesh said: “JD(U) and RJD contested 101 seats each in 2015 elections. Now JD(U) is out of the alliance. So, we cannot agree on the same number of seats.” Congress had contested 41 out of 243 assembly seats in Bihar in 2015.
Congress legislature party (CLP) leader Sadanand Singh, who along with state party president Madan Mohan Jha and senior leaders Tariq Anwar, Shyam Sunder Singh Dheeraj and Kripanath Pathak met at former governor Nikhil Kumar’s residence here, said their party was making no less efforts than others for the elections. “Rather we are making more efforts and taking concrete steps for making the party strong at ground level,” he told reporters. The CLP leader, however, said the number of seats will be decided by the party high command. “It was just a get-together to discuss as how to prepare for the election,” Singh told TOI.
Manjhi, on the other hand, supported Congress’s demand of more seats. “I agree to the Congress’s demand for more seats. Any decision should be taken by a coordination committee. We are ready to contest lower number of seats, but only if it is decided by a coordination committee and not by a party or person,” Manjhi said.
RJD spokesperson and Rajya Sabha MP Manoj Jha, however, said all issues will be amicably resolved through talks with the allies. “We will seat together and win the elections,” he said.
Congress state president Jha told TOI that it was an informal meeting. When asked if they discussed the election strategy and seat-sharing formula, he replied, “Our party is already holding various programmes. So, definitely we will discuss the strategy for election when we meet. But seat-sharing was not discussed today. We will discuss the issue with alliance partners. It is natural that everybody wants to contest more number of seats.”
Tariq said the party will resume membership drive which was disrupted due to lockdown and Covid-19. He said the party will demand the migrants’ enrolment in the voter list. “It seems election would be held on time,” he added. Tariq also said seat-sharing will be decided when the alliance partners sit together.
Nikhil said the Centre miserably failed in handling the migrants’ issue. “Had the central government handled this issue strategically from the beginning, it would not have led to such a crisis,” Nikhil said.