Congress Calls For 65 Seats, RJD To Concede Only 57 In Bihar Poll

NEW DELHI: RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav met senior Congress leaders in New Delhi on Monday to discuss and finalise the seat-sharing arrangement for the upcoming Bihar Assembly elections. However, both allies have yet to reach a consensus, as the Congress is demanding 60 to 65 seats, while the RJD is willing to concede only 55 to 57.According to sources, the Congress remains firm on its demand, while the RJD is reluctant to go beyond its offer. Disagreements also persist over specific constituencies, including Kahalgaon and Saharsa. The Congress had contested from Kahalgaon and Bahadurpur earlier, but the RJD now wants to field its candidates there. Insiders within the I.N.D.I.A. bloc said the unresolved issues are likely to be settled in the next round of talks, expected to take place on Tuesday. The meeting was held at the residence of Congress MP Phulo Devi Netam, where Tejashwi Yadav, accompanied by his aide and RS MP Sanjay Yadav, met Congress Bihar in-charge Krishna Allavaru, party general secretary K.C. Venugopal and Bihar Congress chief Rajesh Ram. Meanwhile, the Jan Suraaj Party, founded by Prashant Kishor, on Monday announced its second list of 65 candidates for the Bihar Assembly polls but withheld its choice for the Raghopur seat, from where Kishor is expected to challenge RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav. Addressing a press conference, Kishor said the party has now named candidates for 116 of the 243 assembly seats in Bihar.“In the first list, we had announced candidates for 51 seats, and in the second, we have named nominees for 65. The remaining candidates will be announced later,” he said.Kishor, the political strategist turned politician, said the list reflects the party’s commitment to inclusive representation. Among the announced candidates, 31 belong to the extremely weaker sections, 21 to Other Backward Classes (OBCs), and 21 are Muslims. The party has fielded Kamlesh Paswan from Harnaut, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s traditional stronghold, though the CM hasn’t contested there in three decades.Another notable candidate is advocate Abhay Kant Jha, who represented victims of the 1989 Bhagalpur communal riots; he will contest from Bhagalpur.Other prominent names include retired police officer Nasrullah Khan (Nokha, Rohtas), academic Shashikant Prasad (Phulwari), and Dr Shahnawaz (Barharia, Siwan).Economist Naval Kishore Chowdhary has been fielded from Bathnaha (SC) in Sitamarhi, while Tathagat Harshvardhan, son of former Union minister K.K. Tiwary, will contest from Buxar. Tiwary had served as a minister in Rajiv Gandhi’s Cabinet after being elected to the Lok Sabha in 1980 and 1984. Among the Muslim candidates are Md. Ekramul Haque (Thakurganj), Naaz Ahmad Khan alias Pappu Khan (Kesaria), and Aamir Haider (Bahadurpur). For the ST-reserved seat of Manihari in Katihar district, the party has fielded Bablu Soren.In its first list issued last Thursday, the party had nominated several well-known figures, including Bhojpuri singer Ritesh Ranjan Pandey (Kargahar) and Pritti Kinnar, a member of the third gender community (Bhorey, Gopalganj).Former Patna University and Nalanda Open University vice-chancellor K.C. Sinha, known for his popular mathematics books, will contest from Kumhrar (Patna), while retired IPS officer R.K. Mishra is the candidate from Darbhanga and senior advocate Y.V. Giri from Manjhi.



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