"Need To Be Flexible": Congress On Bihar Allies' '16-Seats-Each' Plan

The Bihar Congress -- in face of plans by allies Janata Dal United and the Rashtriya Janata Dal to contest 16 seats each in the coming Lok Sabha election-- has suggested an alternative.

Instead of contesting on 16 seats each, the two allies should contest 15 each, said state Congress chief Akhilesh Singh in an interview with NDTV. One seat can go to CPIML and the Congress will contest the rest, he said.

"Every political party associated with INDIA will have to be flexible if the INDIA Bloc has to contest elections together," Mr Singh.

"The JD(U) had contested elections with BJP in Bihar in 2019. It is a good thing that he is with us today. It is true that they have more number of sitting MPs," Mr Singh told NDTV.

Bihar has 40 Lok Sabha seats, of which the Congress contested nine in the 2019 election, when Nitish Kumar was in alliance with the BJP. This time too, the party wants to be given a respectable number of seats. Some leaders of the INDIA bloc want only one seat should be given to CPI(M-L) in Bihar.

Then opposition Rashtriya Janata Dal had contested a chunk but failed to win any.

The JD(U) had won 16 seats, the BJP won 17 seats, Chirag Paswan's Lok Janshakti Party, six seats. The Congress won a single seat -- Kishanganj.

The seats-sharing talks in the INDIA Bloc -- pending for so long -- have started today. It will be conducted by the state unit leaders of the Grand Old Party, its chief Mallikarjun Kharge has said.