HVK Archives: Seat-sharing may sour Congress, RJD Bihar pact
Seat-sharing may sour Congress, RJD Bihar pact - The Asian Age
J. P. Yadav
()
December 8, 1997
Title: Seat-sharing may sour Congress, RJD Bihar pact
Author: J. P. Yadav
Publication: The Asian Age
Date: December 8, 1997
The seat-sharing between the ruling Rashtriya Janata Dal in Bihar
and the Congress may run into rough weather following a
declaration by the former that it will give only four out of the total 54
Lok Sabha seats in the state to the Congress.
The fact that the RJD will not treat the Congress as a junior partner
became evident when senior party leader and the state finance
minister, Mr Shankar Prasad Tekriwal, stated on Sunday that the
RJD will lay claim to 45 out of the 54 seats in the state and
distribute the rest between the electoral allies - the Congress and
the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (Soren).
In the same vein Mr Tekriwal also declared that his party was
willing to provide a constituency of his choice to the former Prime
Minister and Samajwadi Janata Party chief, Mr Chandra Shekhar,
if he wishes to contest the elections from Bihar.
Though Mr Chandra Shekhar has reportedly expressed his
desire to contest from his home constituency Ballia, the open
invitation by the RJD has added a new dimension, since he had
won the last election from Ballia in Uttar Pradesh as a common
candidate of the Bharatiya Janata Party-Samata Party combine.
It is different matter that he had later deserted the combine to
maintain the identity of his Samajwadi Janata Party in the
dissolved 11th Lok Sabha.
Highly placed sources in the RJD indicated that Mr Chandra
Shekhar, apart from contesting the Ballia Lok Sabha seat, would
also contest from a constituency of his choice in Bihar.
Talking about seat adjustments between allies of the RJD, Mr
Tekriwal said since the Congress and JMM(S) have two and one
sitting MPs respectively in the state, they will be provided four
seats each, and the RJD, with 16 MPs, will bag a lion's share of 45
seats.
Pointing out that no final decision in this regard had been taken,
he, however, confirmed the claim of the RJD, adding that it will
soon be sorted out.
He claimed that the Janata Dal which had won 22 seats last time
under the leadership of Mr Laloo Prasad Yadav, will do much
better this time.
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