JD(U), RJD to contest 100 seats each, Congress 40
Patna : At a joint press conference, first time after the grand alliance was formed, CM Nitish Kumar, RJD president Lalu Prasad and Congress general secretary C P Joshi announced seat sharing formula for the 243 seats Bihar assembly elections.
RJD and JDU will contest 100 seats each and the Congress 40 and the NCP three seats. Lalu Prasad said he would allot seats from RJD quota to the Samajwadi Party which also is a partner of Janata Pariwar. In the 2010 assembly elections, when the JDU had contested the assembly elections in alliance with the BJP, it had polled 22.58 pc and RJD 18.84 pc. In 2010 elections, RJD and LJP had tied up, LJP had got 6.74 pc votes. The Congress which had contested all the seats had got only 8.37 pc of the total votes polled.
Lalu and Nitish said they would organise a joint rally at Patna’s Gandhi Maidan on August 30 when the joint campaign of the alliance would be launched. On the other hand, over a dozen union ministers on Wednesday flagged off Parivartan Raths of the NDA at four different places in the state. Union minister Rajnath Singh flagged off the make shit air-conditioned chariot at Sonpur in Saran district, the district town of Lalu Prasad and union surface and transport minister at Samastipur. All union ministers from Bihar were present.
Lalu and Nitish both took dig at the Prime Minister Narendra Modi stating that he had insulted the entire community of Bihar by doubting the DNA of Nitish Kumar. Five million samples of hair are being sent to PM to establish the DNA of Biharis. Nitish said, “I am a Bihari and
DNA of entire Bihari matches with my DNA”.
Lalu predicted BJP and its alliance partners would not get more than 30 seats in the Bihar elections. He agreed with Nitish Kumar that good governance show of Nitish would help Janta alliance to win the elections under the leadership of Nitish Kumar. But, because of caste conflicts in the BJP leadership, party is not able to project its chief ministerial candidate, he further stated.
Lalu and Nitish consumed most of the time of the press conference and Congress general secretary did not speak a word. A section of the state Congress leaders who had met the party vice-president Rahul Gandhi in New Delhi on Tuesday had suggested the party should contest on all the seats. State Congress chief Ashok Kumar Chaudhury had declared the party would demand at least 50 seats in the alliance, which was not agreed upon by Lalu and Nitish.
