NEW DELHI: In view of the Bihar assembly elections due in November, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav held a meeting with Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge and Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition and party MP Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday.
The meeting was held at Kharge’s residence in Delhi, where Congress leader K C Venugopal and RJD’s Manoj Jha were also present, among others.
Speaking to reporters in the morning, Yadav said, “Today is our official meeting. We will discuss the strategies for Bihar (elections). ”
A high-stakes battle is expected to take place in Bihar, with the National Democratic Alliance (NDA); consisting of Janata Dal (United) led by Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, and the BJP fighting against the alliance consisting of Congress, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Left parties.
Earlier, RJD MP Manoj Jha said that this meeting will discuss seat-sharing and the alliance between the two parties, there are clamours that the RJD should look beyond Congress. The grand old party’s performance has not been up to the mark for the last four polls. The lower strike rate has hurt the performance of the Mahagathbandhan, an alliance of RJD, Congress and Left.
In the 2010 Bihar assembly polls, the Congress had contested all 243 seats but won just four with a vote percentage of little over 8 per cent.
In the 2015 assembly polls, when Nitish Kumar parted ways with the BJP and his party JDU joined RJD-Congress in Mahagathbandhan, the Congress contested 41 seats and won 27 seats with a vote share of around 6.7 per cent. In the 2020 assembly polls when Nitish Kumar returned to the NDA, the Congress contested 70 seats and won 19 with around 9 per cent vote share.
With growing tension in the Mahagathbandhan (Grand Alliance) on the issue of CM face, all constituents of the opposition alliance in Bihar will meet in Patna on 17 April.
The alliance partners will discuss election strategy, seat sharing and formation of a coordination committee in the first meeting before the upcoming assembly elections in Bihar.
While the ruling NDA is far ahead in election preparations, the Grand Alliance is still planning to hold its first meeting due to the Congress Party’s stand on the CM face of the alliance.
On March 30, while sounding the poll bugle for the BJP in Bihar, Union Home Minister Amit Shah slammed former Bihar CM Lalu Prasad for “jungle raj” and corruption between 1990-2005. Since his meeting on March 30, Shah is also going to spend two days a month in Bihar to prepare for the polls.
Agencies