Bihar’s grand alliance on Friday announced the seat-sharing agreement among RJD, Congress and Left parties for the Lok Sabha election. RJD leader Abdul Bari Siddiqui announced the names of the grand alliance candidates at a press conference in Patna. Bihar Congress president Akhilesh Prasad Singh, RJD MP Manoj Jha and senior leaders of the Left parties were present. State's 40 parliamentary constituencies will go to polls in seven phases from April 19 to June 1.
Under the deal, the RJD will contest the election on highest 26 seats, the Congress on 9, the CPI(ML) on 3 seats, CPI and CPI(M) 1 seat each. The RJD will filed its candidates in Gaya, Nawada, Jehanabad, Aurangabad, Buxar, Patliputra, Munger, Jamui, Banka, Valmikinagar, East Champaran, Sheohar, Sitamarhi, Vaishali, Saran, Siwan, Gopalganj, Ujiyarpur, Darbhanga, Madhubani, Jhanjharpur, Supaul, Madhepura, Purnea, Araria and Hajipur. The Congress will field contest from Kishanganj, Katihar, Bhagalpur, Muzaffarpur, Samastipur (SC), West Champaran, Patna Sahib, Sasaram (SC) and Maharajganj. The CPI (ML) will contest the election in Ara, Karakat and Nalanda seats while the CPI from Begusarai and the CPI(M) from the Khagaria constituency.
Purnea seat 'officially' goes to the RJD
With Purnea seat 'officially' going to the RJD, former MP Rajesh Ranjan aka Pappu Yadav, who had recently merged his Jan Adhikar Party (JAP) with the Congress, hangs in balance. Amid uncertainty over his political future, Pappu again staked his claim to the Purnea seat by commenting on ‘X’, “We will form a government in the country by winning Seemanchal and Kosi (regions of Bihar). We will hoist the Congress flag in Purnea and will make Rahul Gandhi the prime minister.”
However, Pappu ruled out the possibility of contesting election as a rebel candidate after the Purnea seat was alloted to RJD. The Aurangabad seat also came into sharp focus after former MP Nikhil Kumar, a strong contender for the seat, objected to RJD chief Lalu Yadav fielding his party candidate from there, calling it against the coalition dharma. Before the announcement of the deal, Lalu distributed tickets and party symbols to a dozen candidates. His daughters Misa Bharti and Rohini Acharya will contest the election from Patliputra and Siwan constituencies.
