Reminded by Rahul Gandhi, Gohil rushes to Patna for seat-sharing talks with RJD
09/08/2020
NEW DELHI, AUGUST 8: With the Election Commission of India (ECI) seeming firm on holding the assembly elections in Bihar on time despite the surge in Covid cases, the Congress has embarked on the contentious seat-sharing deal with its principal ally Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD).Prompted by former congress president Rahul Gandhi’s reminder during his virtual meeting with party leaders on Thursday, AICC in-charge for Bihar, Shaktisinh Gohil, arrived in Patna on a two-day visit supposedly to begin the seat-sharing negotiation with RJD leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav and leaders of other allies.During his virtual meeting with senior Bihar leaders on July 4, Gandhi had told Gohil to wind up the seat-sharing deal with allies by the month-end, so that the party could focus on selected seats to bolster its electoral prospects. Talking to HT, Gohil had also said that the seat adjustments among the coalition partners would not be stretched.Immediately after his arrival from Delhi, Gohil went straight to meet senior party and CLP leader Sadanand Singh and former governor Nikhil Kumar to solicit their views before launching the crucial seat-sharing talks. “The in-charge has arrived and hopefully the deal would be finalized soon, as leaders of all parties want to settle it,” said Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee (BPCC) chief Madan Mohan Jha.In the last assembly polls, the Congress had contested 41 seats and won 27, while the RJD had fielded 101 candidates and won 80 seats. “In case of distribution of seats, the RJD and the Congress should leave seats in ratio of 60:40 from their quota,” Sharma had pointed out.Party insiders, however, said that expecting a reasonable and respectable allocation of seats with the RJD’s bid to project Tejashwi Prasad Yadav as the alliance’s CM candidate, may be wishful thinking. The RJD wants to contest 150 seats out of total 243, leaving little scope for adjustments for allies. Seat-sharing deal in the Lok Sabha polls was also not encouraging for the Congress.
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The RJD does not appear keen to resolve the seat adjustment issue without finalizing the leadership issue. RJD spokesman Mrityunjay Tiwari said, “Seat allocation and other issues would be resolved on time.”
Citing previous electoral results since 2005 in Bihar, Sharma pointed out that the RJD has been a big loser when not contesting in alliance with the Congress.
“Good sense will prevail on the RJD to be considerate in seat-sharing exercise, realising the importance of Congress on the basis of past elections,” Sharma said, while asking to urgently set up a coordination committee for GA issues.
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