Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi.
Credit: PTI
Patna: Confusion prevailing in the INDIA bloc showed little signs of let up on Saturday, with just two days to go before the filing of nomination papers for the second and final phase of assembly elections comes to a close.
The multi-party coalition, which had of late been blaming its inability to declare a seat-sharing arrangement on the need to "accommodate new allies", was given up on by the JMM, which announced it will go it alone and contest six seats in Bihar.
The RJD, which is expected to contest a lion's share of the 243 seats in the state assembly, has been giving away party tickets at will, in many instances against candidates of alliance partners, but has failed to come up with a consolidated list of its nominees.
The Congress, which had a few days ago announced a 'first list' of 48 candidates, followed by a one-off announcement on Friday, has now revealed the names of its nominees for five more seats, including Kishanganj, which it held but where it has dropped its sitting MLA Ijharul Hussain in favour of a turncoat.
The Kishanganj candidate, Qamrul Hoda, had won the seat in a 2019 by-election, but finished third in 2020 assembly polls, contesting on both occasions on a ticket of AIMIM headed by Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi.
Hoda had joined the RJD two years ago and he is the second leader from that party to be contesting on a Congress ticket, after Rishi Mishra, who was on Friday named as the candidate from Jale.
The Congress' list of five candidates, released late in the evening, also includes Irfan Alam, who has been fielded from Kasba. Earlier, the Congress had reportedly decided to consider former state minister Afaque Alam for a fourth consecutive term from the seat.
However, fearing a backlash from Independent MP from Purnea, Pappu Yadav, who is said to have taken Irfan Alam, a former JD(U) leader, under his wing, the grand old party is said to have agreed to field the local strongman's trusted aide.
For the Purnea assembly seat, the party has named as its candidate Jitendra Yadav, whose wife is the city mayor while the Gaya town ticket has gone to Deputy Mayor Mahendra Kumar Srivastava.
It is widely believed that the party has agreed to contest fewer seats than 70, it had fought five years ago, though the exact number was not yet known.
In Patna, several disgruntled leaders of the Congress held a press conference, squarely blaming AICC in-charge for Bihar, Krishna Allavaru, for the mess and alleging "tickets were put up for sale".
In at least eight seats, more than one constituent of the opposition coalition is in the fray. Three of these could end up witnessing an RJD-Congress face-off.
Besides, rumours are afloat that in the reserved seat of Kutumba, from where state Congress president Rajesh Kumar Ram is seeking re-election, the RJD has also decided to field its own candidate. Ram has come up with a flurry of angry tweets, which have been frowned upon by top Congress leaders who insist that a resolution was just around the corner.
Senior Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury told PTI Videos, "I would like to say that we are close to reaching an agreement. Of course, there is some mismatch between demand and supply. Things should become clearer by the time withdrawal of nomination papers takes place."
Meanwhile, all did not seem to be fine with the NDA either, even though all its constituents have announced their seats and candidates in time.
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's JD(U), which is contesting 101 seats, as many as the BJP, decided at the eleventh hour to field former Rajya Sabha MP Sabir Ali from Amour, where it had earlier named Saba Zafar, the runner-up of 2020, who had also won the seat five years earlier but on a BJP symbol.
Interestingly, Ali had been expelled from the JD(U) in 2014 for praising Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whom the party supremo then considered a staunch rival. Ali had subsequently joined the BJP and was named general secretary of its minority cell.
The ruling coalition also faced embarrassment in Marhaura seat, where Seema Singh, a Bhojpuri actor turned politician, who was contesting as a candidate of Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas), headed by Union minister Chirag Paswan had her nomination papers rejected on technical grounds.
The seat now seems to be heading for a one-sided contest in favour of former minister and sitting MLA Jitendra Kumar Rai, whom only Jan Suraaj Party candidate Abhay Singh could offer a semblance of challenge. However, Paswan said his party has given representation to the EC to reconsider its decision on "a minor oversight".