Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Mar 29: After much agonising wait, the opposition INDIA bloc has finalised seat-sharing in both Maharashtra and Bihar with the regional parties leading the alliances in both the states leaving several of the Congress leaders dissatisfied.
While no official announcement has still been made about the number of seats each partners of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) would contest out of the 48 seats in Maharashtra, in Bihar the 40 seats to the Lok Sabha had been shared between the Rashtriya Janata Dal (26 seats), the Congress nine and the left parties allocated five seats.
In Maharashtra, the opposition grouping MVA comprises the Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar). Party sources said of the 44 seats finalised earlier, the Sena (UBT) was allocated 19 seats, the Congress 16 and the NCP Nine seats.
About the reported discord among MVA partners ahead of the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, the Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut said on Friday that there was no dispute among the allies over seat sharing. “On April 3, a press conference of MVA leaders will be held at Shivalaya, the Sena (UBT) office. Uddhav Thackeray, Sharad Pawar and Congress leaders Nana Patole, Prithviraj Chavan and Balasaheb Thorat will be present,” he said.
Sanjay Raut also said Mr Thackeray would also attend the opposition INDIA bloc rally at Ramlila Maidan in New Delhi on March 31, organised to “safeguard the country’s interests and democracy.” The opposition parties announced the rally last week following the arrest of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with an excise policy-linked money-laundering case.
The announcement about the seat-sharing formula in Bihar was made at State RJD headquarters jointly by RJD, Congress and three Left parties which form the “mahagathbandhan” in the state. In last 2019 Lok Sabha elections too, Congress had contested on nine seats winning the lone Kishanganj seat while the RJD won none with the NDA having captured all the remaining 39 seats.
Among the Left parties, Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) to contest on three seats of Bhojpur (Ara), Nalanda and Karakat, while Communist of Party of India (CPI) to contest Begusarai seat, for which it already has announced name of the candidate as Awadhesh Rai and Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPM) would contest the Khagaria seat.
The seat sharing has left a bitter taste for the Congress as many of the party leaders felt that it had been denied some of the seats the party had legitimate claim of having contested and won in the past and had been left with the seats where the NDA was very strong leaving very little hope for the party to win any.
The party’s heavyweight leader Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav who was keen to contest from Purnea, which the RJD has refused to concede to the Congress, is likely to force him to indulge in a “friendly contest” with the RJD. The RJD has already announced the name of Bima Bharti as party candidate from Purnea. However, Pappu Yadav whose wife Ranjit Ranjan is Congress Rajya Sabha MP from Chhattisgarh, is likely to be fielded from Supaul seat which she had represented in Lok Sabha once.
“I’m son of Purnea and will contest from Purnea seat. Will prefer to leave the world but not the Purnea seat”, Mr Yadav had said earlier before the seat-sharing formula was announced.
The Begusarai seat too has gone to the CPI quota from where it was speculated that Congress leader and former Jawaharlal Nehru University Student’s Union (JNUSU) president Kanhaiya Kumar would be the likely candidate. In the last 2019 Lok Sabha poll, Mr Kumar as CPI candidate was defeated from Begusarai seat by BJP candidate Giriraj Singh by over two lakh votes. He, later, had joined Congress Party.
Many political analysts felt the Congress has not been able to drive a hard bargain, as is evidenced by seats like Purnea, Supaul and Madhepura going in the RJD’s kitty. Jan Adhikar Party (Loktantrik) chief Pappu Yadav had merged his party with the Congress last week and was slated to be nominated from the Purnea Seat, while his wife Ranjeet Ranjan won from the Supaul seat in 2014 as a Congress candidate and had contested from there in 2019.
Bihar will be crucial for the INDIA alliance as it sends the fourth highest number of MPs to the Lok Sabha and 39 of the 40 seats had been won by the NDA in 2019. The opposition alliance was jolted earlier this year after Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar switched sides yet again and went back to the NDA, but it is still seen to be in a stronger position in the state than it was during the last elections.