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Bihar: Congress, RJD reach seat sharing consensus
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September 20, 2005 20:40 IST
A broad consensus was reached on Monday by Rashtriya Janata Dal and Congress and their other allies on the key issue of seat sharing for the Bihar assembly polls but the parties remained tight-lipped over how many of the 243 seats they would contest.

Similar is the situation in the third front which consists of, among others, the Ramvilas Paswan-led Lok Janshakti Party and the Communist Party of India.

RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav told reporters after yet another round of talks with representatives of Congress, Nationalist Congress Party and Communist Party of India (Marxist) that the details of seat sharing would be announced only after issue of the election notification on September 23 for the first of the four phases.

Congress will contest 113 seats in Bihar

Paswan, who held talks with CPI national secretary D Raja as also leaders of the Revolutionary Socialist Party and Forward Bloc, spoke in a similar vein.

Sources said that in the RJD-led alliance, Lalu's party would have the lion's share of about 190 seats while Congress share is expected to be in the range of 30-40 and the NCP and CPI (M) around eight each. The strength of Bihar assembly is 243.

All India Congress Committee general secretary Digvijay Singh and Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee chief Sadanand Singh parried questions on the exact number of seats that the party would be contesting with Digvijay making it clear that the Congress emphasis was not on number of seats but winnability of candidates.

Bihar will be having assembly polls for the second time in ten months 2005 as the earlier elections threw up a hung house and subsequent developments resulted in the dissolution of the assembly.


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