New Delhi: As elections for the 243 assembly seats in Bihar approaches near, cracks in opposition’s Grand Alliance [Mahagathbandhan] has surfaced in open despite attempts of reaching a consensus after prolonged negotiation on seat-sharing arrangements.
The grand coalition of parties suffered a setback on October 20 with Jharkhand Mukti Morcha [JMM] announcing to withdraw from the upcoming assembly polls in Bihar, accusing the Rashtriya Janata Dal [RJD] and Indian National Congress [INC] of political deceit.
“With great regret, JMM is compelled to state that the party will not be participating in this election. The political cunning of the leading party in the Bihar alliance has harmed the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha. It has shattered our aspiration to contest the elections in Bihar,” said JMM leader Sudivya Kumar on Monday.
Kumar, a minister in JMM led Jharkhand government further said that the consequences of this will be seen in the future and the party will also review the conduct of the alliance partners, indicating larger ramifications of the development.
“We will surely respond to this. The consequences of this will be seen. The party will definitely review the conduct of the political parties of Mahagathbandhan in coming days,” he added.
He further clarified that the JMM will not actively participate in the Bihar elections and is not supporting any political party in the assembly polls. Significantly the party has earlier announced to contest on 6 assembly seats.
The announcement comes amidst the Mahagathbandhan parties still reported to be in disagreement over fielding candidates on multiple seats. As per reports, there are at least 4-5 seats where the Mahagathbandhan parties have more than one candidate in the fray, indicating of a possible ‘friendly fight’ within the allies.
The situation remains developing as similar deadlock in seats like Kutumba, a seat contested by Congress Bihar president and Lalganj of Vaishali has been ended reportedly after the withdrawal of candidates from RJD and the Congress party respectively. Though the tussle over candidate of Mahagathbandhan still reported to be remained unresolved on seats like Narkatiyaganj, Kahalgaon, Sultanganj and others.
The delay in announcement of seat sharing arrangements within the alliance have also led to emergence of bizarre situation such as in Darbhanga’s Gaura Bauram. As per details, the RJD had decided to field a candidate from the seats providing him with the symbol and documents. The Gaura Bauram seat however was later allotted to one of the alliance partner during the seat-sharing negotiations.
The last hour deal over the seat however has led to emergence of a bizarre situation as the said RJD leader has already submitted his nomination form with RJD symbol.
Other than the seat-sharing issues, the grand alliance is also facing anger of its rebel leaders with many breaking down in public and labelling serious allegations.
The NDA on the other hand has performed quite well in tackling its rebel leaders with Union Home Minister Amit Shah himself reported to be interacting with leaders who showed rebellious attitude after announcement of candidates.
Though despite the delay and deadlock on a few seats, the grand alliance leaders however have remained hopeful of reaching a consensus with the last date of withdrawing nominations for the final phase ending on Thursday.
As of now, the RJD has announced candidates on 143 seats, followed by Congress which has declared its candidates on 61 seats. The left parties and the Vikassheel Insaan Party [VIP] led by Mukesh Sahni are likely to contest on the remaining seats.
The announcement came almost a week after the NDA announced its seat-sharing arrangements.
NDA leaders trained guns on opposition claim of unity
The NDA leaders have intensified their attack on the grand alliance over delay in its seat sharing arrangements and of possible electoral fight within Mahagathbandhan candidates on a few assembly seats.
Launching an attack on the opposition, Union Minister and Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) chief Chirag Paswan said there is nothing like a friendly fight in electoral contest.
“There is nothing called as friendly fight, either you are friends or fighting with each other. The friendly conflict does not happen in politics; this is wrong terminology,” said Paswan.
The Union Minister accused the grand alliance for unable to take care of their internal rifts, indicating a clear edge to the NDA.
The elections for the 243 seats of Bihar assembly are likely to be fought primarily between the NDA and the Mahagathbandhan. The NDA includes of the Bharatiya Janata Party, Janata Dal (United), LJP (R), Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) and Rashtriya Lok Morcha.
The Mahagathbandhan on the other side is led by RJD and include Congress party, the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) (CPI-ML) led by Deepankar Bhattacharya, the Communist Party of India (CPI), the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPM), and VIP.
Other than the two alliances, Prashant Kishor’s Jan Suraaj, Tej Pratap Yadav led Jan Shakti Dal, Pashupati Paras led Rashtriya Lok Jan Shakti Party, and Asaduddin Owaisi led AIMIM are also in the fray in polls which are scheduled for November 6 and 11 with counting of votes to be done on November 14.
