Bihar polls: RJD-Congress rift deepens as both field candidates from Lalganj seat

Patna, Oct 17 (IANS) The ongoing rift within the Grand Alliance (Mahagathbandhan) came to the fore on Friday, when Shivani Shukla, daughter of Bahubali leader Munna Shukla, filed her nomination as an RJD candidate from the Lalganj Assembly seat in Vaishali district, even though the seat had been allocated to the Congress under the alliance arrangement.

The Congress had announced Aditya Kumar Raja as its official candidate from Lalganj.

However, tensions flared at the sub-divisional office when Raja arrived to file his nomination, accompanied by Purnea MP Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav.

After submitting her nomination papers, Shivani Shukla publicly thanked RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav and Tejashwi Yadav for allowing her to contest the election on the RJD ticket.

Soon after, a scuffle broke out between supporters of both sides, leading to chaos in the area.

The situation was later brought under control following the intervention of security personnel.

The incident has once again raised serious questions about the unity and coordination within the Grand Alliance in Bihar.

While the first phase of nominations concluded on Friday, the seat-sharing formula within the alliance remains unresolved.

Sources said the impasse stems from the Congress’s insistence on contesting 70 seats, the same number it contested in the 2020 Assembly elections, when it managed to win only 19 seats - a strike rate of 27 per cent.

RJD leaders, led by Lalu Prasad Yadav and Tejashwi Yadav, are reportedly unwilling to repeat the 2020 arrangement, arguing that the Congress’s poor performance cost the Grand Alliance the majority mark of 122 seats last time.

Top leaders of the alliance, including Tejashwi Yadav, Dipankar Bhattacharya (CPI-ML), and Mukesh Sahani (VIP), held several rounds of meetings with the Congress leaders in Delhi till October 15 to finalise the seat-sharing arrangement.

However, despite prolonged discussions, no consensus could be reached.

Both Tejashwi Yadav and Mukesh Sahani reportedly waited until Thursday before the announcement of the final formula, but the talks remained inconclusive, deepening the uncertainty within the Grand Alliance.

--IANS

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