PATNA: Pulls and pressures in Bihar’s Opposition RJD-led Grand Alliance over the sharing of seats for next year’s Lok Sabha polls came to the surface on Saturday as senior RJD leader Raghuvansh Prasad Singh asked the party’s allies not to engage in “saudebaazi” (bargaining) over seats.
While Singh, RJD’s national vice-president, did not name any party, his comments were understood to be directed at the smaller allies such as former chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi’s Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM), former Union minister Upendra Kushwaha’s Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP) and Mukesh Sahni’s Vikashsheel Insaan Party (VIP).
“All these parties have come together for a common purpose, which is to end the current misrule in Bihar and at the centre. So these parties should not engage in saudebaazi (bargaining) for seats. They should mention their candidates having winning potential,” said Singh, a former Union minister known for his proximity to jailed RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav.
With Yadav’s son and Bihar Opposition leader Tejashwi Yadav meeting his father in Ranchi along with Kushwaha and Sahni to discuss the seat-sharing on Saturday, Singh’s comments assumed significance. Sources said the meeting remained inconclusive as the RJD chief disagreed to demands by RLSP and VIP for seven and five seats respectively.
“The first priority is to make a common minimum programme. Secondly, there should be a common platform of the allies. Thirdly, the parties should contest on a common electoral symbol. It will not be good for so many parties in the alliance contesting on several symbols,” added Singh, who had correctly predicted that both HAM and RLSP would quit NDA and join the Grand Alliance.
While RJD, the main party in the Grand Alliance, is keen to retain its leading position and contest on half of Bihar’s 40 LS seats, Congress, the second major constituent in the alliance, wants at least 15 seats, said sources.
“It is going to be difficult to accommodate all the allies, including Sharad Yadav’s LJD and the Left parties, and satisfy them. But a satisfactory formula would be worked out in the second half of January,” said an RJD leader.