RJD, Congress finalise seat-sharing arrangement for Bihar bypolls

Bihar's opposition RJD and its ally Congress on Thursday announced that they have reached a seat-sharing arrangement for next month's bypolls to one Lok Sabha and two assembly constituencies.

Addressing a press conference here, Leader of Opposition Tejashwi Yadav, flanked by state Congress President Kaukab Quadri, said that it had been agreed that the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) would contest the Araria Lok Sabha and Jehanabad assembly seats and the Congress will contest by-elections on the Bhabua Assembly.

The RJD has also announced its candidates for Araria and Jehanabad bypolls - Sarfaraz Alam and Suday Yadav respectively, although the Congress has not yet finalised its nominee for the Bhabua assembly seat.

The Congress will finalise the name of its candidate for the Bhabua Assembly seat soon, Quadri said.

Alam, who was a sitting lawmaker of the ruling Janata Dal-United (JD-U), had last week resigned from the party and the assembly to join the RJD.

The legislator from Jokihat in Araria district, he was the son of RJD MP Mohammad Taslimuddin, whose death last year led to the seat falling vacant.

Araria has been a stronghold of Alam's father, Taslimuddin, for over three decades and this will give him an opportunity to lay his claim to his father's legacy.

Bypolls to the Jehanabad and Bhabua assembly seats were necessitated following the deaths of the sitting legislators belonging to the RJD and the Bharatiya Janata Party respectively.

The Nitish Kumar-led government is yet to announce any seat-sharing arrangement.

--IANS

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