Patna, October 3: The Mahagathbandhan alliance announced the seat-sharing pact for the upcoming Bihar assembly elections 2020. As per the agreement finalised, the largest share of seats would be kept by the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), as it would contest on 144 out of the 243 constituencies. The Congress will field its candidate on 70 seats, whereas, the Left has been assigned the remaining 29 assembly segments. BSP, RLSP to Fight Polls Together, Upendra Kushwaha to Be CM Candidate, Says Mayawati.

Out of the Left Front's share, the maximum were allotted to CPI-ML, which will field candidates on 19 seats. The CPI(M) and CPI will contest from 4 and 6 constituencies, respectively.

The coalition also decided that candidates of the Vikasheel Insaf Party (VIP) and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) would be accommodated by the RJD. The lone Lok Sabha bypoll in Valmiki Nagar seat would be contested by the Congress on behalf of the grand alliance.

Apart from declaring the seat-sharing formula, the Mahagathbandhan also announced their chief ministerial candidate. The alliance of anti-BJP bloc will project Tejashwi Yadav, the current Leader of Opposition and former Deputy CM, as their CM face. The 30-year-old is the youngest son of RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav.

By finalising the seat-sharing formula, the RJD-Congress-Left alliance has scored a point over the NDA. The rival coalition of BJP-JD(U)-LJP is yet to finalise the pre-poll pact despite the three parties being involved in hectic negotiations to iron-out the differences.

Polls in Bihar will be held on October 28, November 3 and 7. The number of phases were curtailed as compared to previous legislative assembly elections in view of the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead of five to seven rounds of pollings witnessed earlier in Bihar, the Election Commission decided to conduct the voting in three phases this time. The counting of votes is scheduled on November 10.

In the 2015 assembly polls, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar was on the side of Mahagathbandhan. The RJD, JD(U) had shared 101 seats each, whereas, the Congress was assigned 40 constituencies. The BJP had partnered with the LJP, HAM(S) and RLSP.

When the results were declared, the Mahagathbandhan had succeeded in securing a grand victory. The RJD emerged as the single largest party with 80 seats in the last elections. The JD(U) had won 71, the BJP 53 and Congress 27. In 2017, however, Nitish Kumar broke ranks with the grand alliance and re-entered the NDA fold to form a government with the BJP.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Oct 03, 2020 05:53 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).