Bihar Assembly polls: Congress mulling dumping Mahagatbandhan, may contest on all 243 seats

Miffed over being ‘shabbily treated’ over the seat-sharing issue, the Congress too is mulling over the proposal to dump the Mahagathbandhan and contest on all the 243 seats in Bihar.

Sources in Patna, as well as in New Delhi, confirmed that the Congress Screening Committee meeting in New Delhi could not resolve the deadlock with the RJD over the number of seats and “as such the party, was also working on Plan B.”

According to this alternate plan, the grand old party was working on a strategy to have “a greater alliance with like-minded parties minus RJD,” and field its candidates by roping in smaller allies like Upendra Kushwaha, Pappu Yadav and the Left.

“Till two days back, our talks with the RJD were going on in the right direction. But ever since the state RJD president Jagdanand Singh said ‘those who want to leave the Mahagathbandhan are free to do so’, the already soured ties took a turn for worse,” said a senior Congress functionary.

He also quoted how RJD vice-president Shivanand Tiwary accused the Congress of “trying to stifle the RJD” by pressurising it to concede more seats to the grand old party.

Already, Jitan Ram Manjhi’s HAM and Upendra Kushwaha’s RLSP have deserted the Mahagathbandhan charging Tejashwi Yadav with high-handedness, arrogance and not being accommodative.

The seat-sharing talks with the Congress reached a deadlock when the RJD offered the Congress 58 seats and a Lok Sabha bypoll seat of Valmikinagar.

The RJD itself wants to contest on no less than 150 seats out of 243 constituencies. The remaining seats were left for Left parties comprising the CPI-ML, CPI and CPM, besides a couple of seats for Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM).

The Left too called off its ties on Wednesday and announced its candidate list saying the RJD was behaving in an arrogant manner.

Meanwhile, the Congress has made a last-ditch effort to save the Mahagathbandhan and told the RJD that it would not contest on less than 70 seats.

“Or else, we are free to field candidates on all the 243 seats or form a new alliance with like-minded parties including Kushwaha and the Left,” the Congress source told DH.