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Sunday, Dec 26, 2004

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Congress, Rashtriya Janata Dal begin seat-sharing talks

By K.V. Prasad

NEW DELHI, DEC. 25. The Congress and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) today opened seat-sharing talks for the Bihar Assembly elections amid indications that both sides would engage in hard bargaining.

Senior Congress leaders, Arjun Singh and M.L. Fotedar, met the RJD chief, Lalu Prasad, and his party colleague, Prem Chand Gupta, for a round of talks here in the backdrop of the RJD having stated earlier that the party was not willing to concede more than 10 seats in the 243-strong Assembly.

Having swallowed a bitter pill in the last Lok Sabha elections in which the Congress had to accept a mere four seats, half of what the nascent Lok Janshakti Party of Ram Vilas Paswan got, the Congress plans to position itself strategically.

For one, the Congress would place on table a three-digit figure of seats the party would seek thereby raising the bar for negotiations. The Congress leaders from the State have been advancing the argument that the ground situation has altered in favour of the party as compared to the Lok Sabha polls. The advent of the Congress-led coalition Government at the Centre adds to its strength.

Cracks in RJD-led front

Besides the fact that the RJD-led front in Bihar has developed cracks with the Lok Janshakti Party of Mr. Paswan going away, political alignment in the opponent's camp has altered. The Janata Dal (United) is restive over the current relationship with the Bharatiya Janata Party, with some senior leaders expressing willingness to join hands with Mr. Paswan's party as well as the Congress, by keeping the BJP out, to fight the RJD.

Congress leaders from the State and the Centre said the party would insist on getting all the sitting 14 seats, as also the 17 seats the Congress finished on top in the Assembly segments during the April-May general elections.

In addition, the calculation includes positions where the Congress came second in seats the RJD did not contest. The statistics of the previous Assembly polls would also be used to drive home a respectable bargain.

Mr. Lalu Prasad's party that is seeking to retain power for a fourth time has consolidated its position in terms of per cent of votes. In the 1995 Assembly polls, the combined Janata Dal polled nearly 28 per cent as against 1.44 per cent by the Congress. In the 2000 Assembly elections, the RJD, which contested after a split in Janata Dal, polled 28.34 per cent of votes. It contested 293 seats in undivided Bihar and won 124 while the Congress contested all 324 seats and won 23 seats with 11.69 per cent of votes.

In the recent Lok Sabha elections, the RJD contested 26 of the 40 seats, winning 22 with a vote share of 30.67 per cent. The Congress won three of the four seats and had 4.49 per cent of votes.

The Communist Party of India (M-L) today criticised the decision of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) to support the RJD in the elections. The party's central committee said in the name of keeping communal forces at bay, the CPI (M-L) has chosen to side with a "discredited and anti-people dispensation."

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