Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Tejashwi Yadav will lead the Opposition in the upcoming Bihar elections as his party is all set to contest the polls on 144 out of 243 Assembly seats in the state.
In a press conference held on Saturday, 3 October, Tejashwi announced that the seat-sharing pact between the Bihar Grand Alliance had been finalised and while the RJD will contest on 144 seats, Congress will fight on 70.
The CPI(M), CPI and CPM candidates will fight on 19, 6 and 4 seats respectively.
This after the Election Commission announced that the Bihar Assembly polls will be conducted in three phases, with voting on 28 October, 3 and 7 November.
‘We Want Bihar to Prosper Under Tejashwi Yadav’: Congress
At the same event, Congress leader Avinash Pandey said that the alliance wants Bihar to prosper under Tejashwi’s leadership, thus announcing that Tejashwi Yadav is the chief ministerial face of the Mahagathbandhan.
“All components of UPA have decided to come together as a coalition for the Bihar Assembly elections. Congress, RJD, CPI, CPM & Vikassheel Insaan Party will be part of this alliance under the leadership of RJD. We want Bihar to prosper under Tejashwi Yadav,” Pandey said.
Vikassheel Insaan Party Walks Out of the Grand Alliance
Soon after the seat-sharing pact was finalised, Vikassheel Insaan Party chief Mukesh Sahni announced that his party is walking out of the alliance stating they were “backstabbed”. Sahni further said that his party was promised 25 seats and position of the deputy chief minister but none of it was announced at the press conference.
This development comes after the filing of nominations for the first phase of voting started on Thursday, 1 October. The last date for filing nominations for the polls is 8 October.
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