Patna: As political parties begun preparations for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections next year, the parties in the opposition alliance have started staking their claims for seats in Bihar.
During the third meeting of ‘I.N.D.I.A.’ in Mumbai, discussions were held about which state and which party would field candidates on how many seats in the Lok Sabha elections. A coordination committee has also been formed, but parties have started asserting their claims based on their concerns about potential losses.
Bihar Congress president Akhilesh Prasad Singh even said that if the Congress does not get suitable seats during his tenure, then when will it get them?
Singh stated that the Congress would field candidates on at least as many seats in Bihar as it did in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. In 2019, the Congress contested on nine seats out of the total 40 seats in Bihar. He mentioned that the opposition alliance, ‘INDIA,’ has formed a committee for seat sharing and the Congress will present its demands before this committee.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the seats contested by the Congress in Bihar included Valmikinagar, Supaul, Kishanganj, Katihar, Purnia, Samastipur, Munger, Patna Sahib, and Sasaram parliamentary constituencies.
The Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) has also staked its claim on seats by writing a letter to RJD president Lalu Prasad Yadav. The CPI-ML secretary-general Deepankar Bhattacharya said that discussions on seat sharing at the state level were held during the ‘INDIA’ meeting in Mumbai.
He said the party has sent a proposal to Lalu Prasad on September 4 for the Lok Sabha elections. He expressed the likelihood that the seat-sharing arrangement would be finalised soon but did not specify the number of seats.
Sources indicated that the CPI-ML has staked claim on eight to 10 seats.
Last month, during his Bihar tour, national secretary of the CPI Atul Anjan had hinted at seat sharing. He had stated that the CPI has influence in 20 Lok Sabha constituencies in Bihar, and the party will demand a significant number of seats here.
In such a situation, it is clear that the way parties have started asserting their claims on seats, the RJD and the JD-U, will have to show a big heart.
The political scenario in next year’s elections will be different from the last Lok Sabha polls. In the previous election, the JD-U was with the NDA, while Upendra Kushwaha and Jitan Ram Manjhi’s parties were part of the Mahagathbandhan. This time, both these parties are likely to be with the NDA.
In the last election, the JD-U, which was with the NDA, contested on 17 seats and won 16, with the RJD winning eight seats.
The RJD and the JD-U may demand the same number of seats as they did in the last election. If both the parties stake claim on the same seats and remain adamant, seat sharing may not be easy. However, it is being said that the RJD and the JD-U may leave one or two seats for each other.
On the demands being made by the Congress and the CPI-ML on the issue of seat sharing in Bihar, the JD-U’s chief spokesperson and former Bihar minister Neeraj Kumar said that there is no dispute here.
He said that this entire matter is going to be resolved easily by sitting together. There is no question of any dispute in I.N.D.I.A.
However, for the ‘INDIA’ alliance in the upcoming elections, seat distribution will be the most challenging task, in such a situation it will be interesting to see which party will show a bigger heart.
–IANS
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