Lok Sabha polls: Mahagathbandhan yet to seal seat-sharing deal in Bihar

With multiple parties staking claim to at least half-a-dozen constituencies in Bihar, an agreeable seat sharing formula still eludes the Mahagathbandhan for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

There are 40 parliamentary constituencies in Bihar and the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has already reached upon a seat sharing formula of 17-17-6 for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Janata Dal-United (JD-U), and Lok Janshakti Party respectively.

Several rounds of talks have been held among the Grand Alliance partners but the final seat sharing is yet to be announced by the Opposition front. In Bihar, it comprises the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) -- the single largest party in Bihar Assembly, Congress, Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP) of Upendra Kushwaha, Hindustani Awam Morcha-Secular (HAM-S) of Jitan Ram Manjhi, Loktantrik Janata Dal (LJD) of Sharad Yadav and Vikas-sheel Insan Party (VIP) of Son of Mallah fame Mukesh Sahni.

While the RJD has made it clear that it will contest no less than 20 seats, Congress is likely to field around 12 candidates to accommodate the rest, said a source in the RJD and added, "The main contention remains around six seats, on which more than one party stake their claim. Again, we also need to fit in the Left parties, because of which things are taking time to be finalised."

However, political observers feel that in "delaying" the seat-sharing arrangement, the bigger partners of the Mahagathbandhan are trying to do what the BJP did in 2014, when they had deferred the seat sharing to the last moment to keep its flock together. "The electoral politics in Bihar is caste-driven and the Opposition wants to ensure maximum outreach. They don't want to make early announcements lest someone unhappy with it, may switch over to the other side," a source said.

The seats for which the Grand Alliance partners are bickering includes Darbhanga — where sitting MP Kirti Azad switched over to the Congress but VIP's Sahni also wants to contest from, Madhepura — sitting MP Pappu Yadav wants to contest on a Congress ticket but the RJD is against it, Munger — Congress wants to field Anant Singh but RJD terms him as "bad element" and Begusarai from where Left wants to field former JNU students' union president Kanhaiya Kumar but the Congress has a different contestant.

Congress leaders in Bihar, though, were hopeful that party president Rahul Gandhi's visit to neighbouring Jharkhand on Saturday, may seal the deal for the Mahagathbandhan.