Even as the Mahagatbandhan or Grand Alliance partners have held multiple rounds of talks to finalise the seat sharing formula in Bihar, the sources indicated that the final tally of seat sharing will be completed by the first week of October ahead of the crucial assembly polls.
The Congress, the source said that though the party had contested on 70 assembly seats during the last Bihar Assembly polls, the grand old party is convinced to settle on lesser seats this time to accommodate VIP’s Mukesh Sahni and Pashupatinath Paras led LJP.
The source said that, the Congress is likely to contest around 60-62 seats and will also be exchanging seats with alliance partners in the state.
The Congress Bihar incharge Krishna Allavaru had expressed openly that all the alliance partners to get many weak seats as well as strong seats, as the party had cmajmed that it had in last polls were given the weak seats which led to victory in only 19 seats.
A top source said that it is expected that seat sharing agreement will happen by the first week of October.
A detauled discussion is being done to finalise the seats. More than quantity, quality of seats will be Congress’s priority during seat-sharing talks.
A senior Congress leader wishing not to be named said that party has got over 3,500 applications so far for contesting elections for over 90 seats.
The source also said that a section of Congress leader want that some of the sitting MLAs need to be dropped, as they have got unsatisfactory reports during g the survey that the party had carried in past few months.
While, some leaders feel that if the sitting MLAs are dropped from the elections by the party might lead to rebellion and many rebel candidates can pop up across the state, thus damaging electrol prospects.
Therefore, final decision will be taken during Congress election committee meeting, the leaders added.
The party leaders also pointed out that this time, the party is only looking for the winnability factor to improve its tally in the state.
The party leader also pointed out that it is buoyed by the recent Votwr Adhikar Yatra undertaken by Rahul Gandhi for 16 days covering almost 25 districts and over 120 assembly seats in the state and thus it is planning to keep the momentum going by ensuring presence of top brass in the election season.
Election for Bihar is all set to take place later this year in the month of October and November.
The Mahagatbandhan is eyeing o wrest power from the ruling NDA led by Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal United.
