PATNA: In order to fight the saffron surge in Bihar, the JD(U), the RJD and the Congress on Wednesday forged an alliance for the coming byelections in the state.
A formal announcement in this regard was made at a joint news conference here by the leaders of the three parties.
JD(U) president Bashishth Narain Singh said, “The three parties-- the JD(U) the RJD and the Congress will fight bypolls together, and will campaign together too. We have finalised seat sharing.”
“The JD (U) will put up its candidate in Parbatta, Mohania (SC), Jale and Hajipur seats,” Singh said.
RJD state president Ram Chandra Purbey said that his party will contest Chapra, Mohiuddinagar, Rajnagar (SC) and Banka seats.
According to the state Congress chief, his party will contest from the Bhagalpur and Narkatiaganj seats.
Interestingly, two main architects of this new alliance-- Nitish and Lalu were not present at the news conference.“This is the need of the hour. And we are uniting to check the erosion in the anti-BJP votes,” Singh told reporters.
Sources said the deal was finalised following talks held by Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, former Bihar CM Nitish Kumar and RJD president Lalu Prasad in Delhi.
As per the seat sharing agreement reached by the parties, the JD(U) and the RJD will contest four seats each while the Congress will fight from two seats in the August 21 bypolls. Although, the alliance has been formed with an eye on the bypolls, the parties might well decide to continue with the arrangement for next year’s Bihar Assembly polls.