PATNA: The Opposition INDIA bloc will hold its coordination committee meeting on Saturday (July 12, 2025) to discuss the issue of seat sharing for upcoming Bihar assembly election.
Assembly elections in the state are due in October-November. It will be the 5th meeting of the coordination committee of INDIA under leadership of RJD leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav.
The opposition alliance comprises RJD, Congress, CPI (ML), CPI, CPI (M) and VIP.
Former union minister and Rashtriya Lok Janshakti Party chief Pashupati Kumar Paras is likely to join Opposition combine on Saturday.
In the last meeting of the INDIA bloc’s coordination committee, held on June 12, it was decided that both party and candidate would be changed if the margin of defeat was more than 15,000 votes in any particular seat in the 2020 assembly elections. It was also decided that all allies would give a list of their probable seats that they wished to contest.
State CPI secretary Ram Naresh Pandey said that no formal talk on the issue of seat sharing had taken place in any meeting of the coordination committee held earlier. He said that the unity among all allies of the INDIA bloc was clearly visible when they held protests together against the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls recently.
VIP supremo Mukesh Sahani has already created a flutter in the Opposition combine by demanding 60 seats and the post of deputy chief minister. He also contended that he would even sacrifice his life for Prime Minister Narendra Modi if the latter gave reservation to Nishad (fishermen) community in Bihar, for which his party has been holding meetings after meetings.
CPI (ML) had also shown its willingness to contest 40-45 seats. In the last assembly election, RJD won 75 out of total 144 seats it contested, Congress could win only 19 out of 70 seats it contested, while CPI (ML)’ put up a spectacular show by wining 12 out of 19 seats it contested. CPI-ML general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya hoped that the party would be allotted reasonable number of seats.