Bihar polls: Grand Alliance confident to gain; Shiv Sena to contest 40-50 seats

The RJD-led Mahagathbandhan is confident to dominate the upcoming Assembly elections in the state as the Lok Janshakti Party parted ways with the NDA and three Left parties joining hands with it.

File pic: Zee News

New Delhi: The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD)-led Mahagathbandhan (Grand Alliance) is confident to dominate the upcoming Assembly elections in the state as the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) parted ways with the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and three Left parties joining hands with it.

The coming together of the Left parties with the Mahagathbandhan will change the poll equation in the upcoming Assembly elections, feels Rajya Sabha MP Manoj Kumar Jha, who is a senior leader of the RJD. He told ANI, "The CPI(ML), CPI and CPI(M) have dedicated cadres across the state and at more than 60 Assembly seats their votes are decisive." 

The Congress, another partner in the Grand Alliance, also feels that the alliance with the Left parties has brightened up their prospects. The Left parties have a good presence in around 100 out of the 243 Bihar Assembly seats, says senior Congress leader Akhilesh Prasad Singh, who is also a Rajya Sabha MP from the state.

Singh said, "While the Left parties have always fought against us, this time the Grand Alliance will definitely benefit from them joining hands with us." 

Hannan Mullah, a politburo member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) or CPI(M), says that the Left parties have always stood by those who fight against the BJP-RSS. 

Bihar CPI(M) in-charge Mullah told ANI, "But during elections in Bihar, parties like the RJD and Congress refuse to give respectable numbers of seats to the Left parties. So, we fight against them, but this time the Grand Alliance has realised the strength of the Left parties and has given a respectable number of seats to us." 

The BJP and the JD(U) of NDA have agreed to contest on 121 and 122 seats respectively. While the JD(U) has given seats to the Hindustani Awaam Morcha of Jitin Ram Manjhi from its quota of 122 seats, the BJP, on the other hand, has formally inducted the Vikassheel Insaan Party into the NDA and assigned it 11 seats.

The LJP has decided not to contest the Bihar Assembly elections under Chief Minister Nitish Kumar as the leader of the NDA. The party, however, will not contest the seats being contested by the BJP. 

Local parties from Bihar approaching us: Sanjay Raut

Shiv Sena will contest on 40-50 seats in the Bihar Assembly elections, but no final decision has been taken on pre-poll alliance yet, said party leader Sanjay Raut on Tuesday, while speaking to reporters.

Raut further said that talks are ongoing with local parties for an alliance in the state and he will be visiting Patna shortly, adding "Shiv Sena will contest 40-50 seats, there is no talk about alliance with anyone till now. I`ll go to Patna next week. Local parties, including that of Pappu Yadav, want to talk to us." 

Raut refused to state anything about talks with its pre-existing ally in the Maharashtra government, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), in Bihar. 

The 243-seat Bihar Assembly elections will be held in three phases on October 28, November 3, and 7, and the counting of votes will take place on November 10. 

(With Agency Inputs)