NEW DELHI
Ahead of the meeting of the I.N.D.I.A partners on seat-sharing for the Lok Sabha elections, the Congress party has marked its claim on at least 10 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar. According to a senior Congress office bearer from the state, the plan drawn up by the Congress leadership is based on what they claim to be the growing stature of the party nationally and also because the party has been able to make its mark by sweeping the Karnataka Assembly elections.
As the grand old party is expecting to win at least two more states out of the five that went to the Assembly elections, the party high command has made it clear that they would not settle for anything lower than 10 Lok Sabha seats out of Bihar’s 40, said a senior Congress leader privy to the developments. In the 2019 general elections, the Congress had contested nine seats and won the lone seat of Kishanganj.
What remains to be seen this time is that the alliance in Bihar has an additional party in its fold, Nitish Kumar’s JDU, which in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, had contested on 17 seats in alliance with the BJP. Hence, any claim of 10 seats by the Congress would force the two bigger regional parties, RJD and JDU, to settle for fewer than 15 seats each, which may create some friction.
The Congress believes its alliance partners will understand the requirements of the Grand Old Party looking for 10 seats. A party insider said, “The reason being that, if they have to remove Narendra Modi’s BJP at Centre, then they will all want to agree. They need to have this sentiment of sacrifice.”
Congress Bihar spokesperson Asith Nath Tiwari said, “We will definitely do better in this Lok Sabha election. I think the BJP will be reduced to fewer than 10 seats in Bihar. This is all because of Congress strategy and planning. Moreover, Congress has brought up this biggest alliance (I.N.D.I.A) and has managed to keep the parties together. And that is why every party will contest along with the Congress.”
However, an ex Congress minister, Shakeel uz Zaman said, “The Congress party has not decided as to how many seats it is going to contest. Since there has been no meeting or resolution by the I.N.D.I.A bloc till now, every party will try to seek as many seats as they can when the meeting for seat sharing is held. Therefore, we will try to seek enough seats.”
A political analyst based in Bihar said, “If the Congress seeks a bigger seat share in Bihar, they may get it. But that doesn’t mean that it will give rise to friction or create a distance among the main regional parties with Congress. Nitish Kumar wants to stay in the alliance. He has shown this intent several times. RJD would not want to venture out on its own in the Lok Sabha elections. Above all, they know that if they have to win seats against BJP, they will have to remain together. Else BJP’s electoral machinery will have a crumbling effect on all the Opposition parties.”
He added, “The Congress-led alliance seems to have an edge in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections in Bihar. Also, Congress is in a position to gain the most from this alliance as Congress will get Yadav and Muslim votes, the core voter base of the RJD, led by Lalu Prasad Yadav. Also, they will get Dalit votes, the core voter base of Nitish Kumar.”