Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Oct 19: Even as only a day left for the filling of nominations for the second of the two-phase polling in Bihar, the rift among the constituent parties in the “Mahagathbandhan” has started even more widening giving clear indications of more “friendly fights” among the alliance partners giving on a platter huge electoral advantage to the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA).
While the Congress has urged Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader and Mahagathbandhan Election Coordination Committee chairman Tejashwi Prasad Yadav to resolve the ongoing deadlock, the Congress Bihar unit chief Rajesh Ram on Sunday accused Mr Yadav of “shifting his stance” and “sabotaging” the alliance.
“He entered the AICC meeting with KC Venugopal as a cooperative ally. Now, his actions suggest he is working against the agreement,” Ram said. Ram also accused Tejashwi Yadav of undermining Dalit representation within the coalition.
RJD has fielded its own candidate, Suresh Paswan, against Rajesh Ram from the SC-reserved Kutumba seat. Both of them, however, have not filed their nominations yet. The voting in Kutumba seat is scheduled in the second phase on November 11.
Even though Congress has released two list of candidates so far, no formal candidate list has been released by RJD, even though it has given tickets to some candidates informally. The “Mahagathbandhan” has still now not been able to finalise a concrete seat-sharing plan. On Saturday, Congress released its second list of candidates for the polls which included five named candidates in addition to the 48 candidates the party announced in its first list. The RJD has been informally allotting its symbols to some candidates and has filed nominations in at least 60 seats.
Without reacting to Ram’s remarks directly, RJD spokesperson Mrityunjay Tiwari said the party high command was “closely monitoring developments” and that the concerns within the coalition would be addressed.
Tiwari also said the Congress must understand that RJD mainly contests only in Bihar and won’t ask for seats in states such as Karnataka and Rajasthan. “Such situations emerge when there is a coalition, but it must be understood that RJD contests elections only in Bihar and a few seats in Jharkhand. We are not going to demand seats in Karnataka, Rajasthan, and Madhya Pradesh from Congress. They must understand the ground realities. There is still time. All the top leaders of the Mahagathbandhan parties would sit together to discuss and resolve this issue,” Tiwari said on Sunday.
In several seats, the allies of the Grand Alliance may engage in “friendly fight” against each other. These constituencies include – Lalganj, Vaishali, Rajapakar, Rosera, Biharsharif, Bachhwara, Tarapur, Kutumba and Kahalgaon.
The last day to file nominations for the second phase of voting is on Monday, October 20. The last date for the withdrawal of candidatures is also on Monday for the first phase of polls and Thursday, October 23, for the second phase of polls. Bihar’s 121 assembly seats will go into polls in first phase on November 6 and 122 seats will vote in second phase on November 11. The votes will be counted on November 14.