PATNA: Congress president Mallikarnjun Kharge and party MP Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday held a brainstorming session with senior party leaders, including AICC in charge of Bihar, Krishna Allavaru in New Delhi.
Various issues, including seat sharing among allies of the INDIA bloc for the upcoming Bihar assembly election, were discussed.
After the meeting, Allavaru told newspersons that poll-related matters like seat sharing, election campaigning, manifesto and candidates were talked about.
“In the meeting, various activities undertaken by the party in view of the state polls were reviewed,” he remarked.
On the number of seats the party is willing to contest, he said that discussions were underway with the alliance partners, adding that discussions with allies were progressing well in a positive manner.
He said that the issue related to the entry of Pashupati Kumar Paras led to matters related to RLJP and Hemant Soren’s JMM being taken up at the meeting.
On VIP leader Mukesh Sahni’s comment that the seat sharing deal will be finalised before September 15, AICC in-charge of Bihar said that it was not possible to set a deadline on such issues always, but efforts were being made to finalise the seat-sharing deal at the earliest.
In the 2020 assembly elections, Congress contested 70 seats, but could win only 19.
The party may drop some sitting MLAs, while names of candidates for its potential strongholds will also be decided only after thorough deliberations, sources added.
The party's Central Election Committee will announce the list of candidates to be fielded in the elections.
The meeting was also attended by senior Congress leader and MP KC Venugopal, chairman of the Congress screening committee for Bihar elections Ajay Maken, Congress MP Ranjeet Ranjan, Bihar Congress president Rajesh Ram, Congress legislative party leader Shakeel Ahmed Khan, former Congress presidents Akhilesh Prasad Singh, Madan Mohan Jha, and Independent MP Rajesh Ranjan aka Pappu Yadav.
Before leaving for New Delhi for the meeting, Bihar Congress president Rajesh Kumar had said that the issues related to the upcoming assembly elections, ranging from joint election campaign to seat-sharing, would be taken up at the meeting of the Central Election Committee of the party.
The INDIA bloc leaders held a meeting last week in Patna to discuss seat-sharing arrangements for the assembly elections due in October-November.
The coordination committee, headed by RJD leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav is scheduled to meet in Patna on September 15.