Panel to discuss RJD, JD(U) seat sharing

The so-called Janata Parivar will not fight the Bihar Assembly elections as one party. At a meeting Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Mulayam Singh Yadav mediated on Sunday, top leaders of some of its constituents decided to put in place a six-member committee for seat-sharing talks between the Janata Dal (United) and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD).

The Congress, despite its weak support base in Bihar, continued to play its part in the proposed seat-sharing arrangement between JD(U), RJD and itself. Bihar CM and JD(U) leader Nitish Kumar met Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi for about an hour in the afternoon. There is a likelihood of RJD chief Lalu Prasad meeting Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Monday.

According to a party leader, the Congress has proposed a formula in which RJD and JD(U) will contest 100 seats each, while the Congress will get to field its candidates on about 35 seats. The rest could go to potential allies as the Nationalist Congress Party. The Bihar Assembly has 243 seats, and elections are due in October.

In the previous Assembly elections in 2010, the Congress had contested alone. It had fielded candidates on all 243 seats, winning only four. The Congress is trying to convince both Kumar and Prasad to agree to an arrangement where both parties contest an equal number of seats but the RJD believes it has a claim to a bigger share, given its considerable Muslim-Yadav vote share. The JD(U) had fought the 2010 elections in alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

After meeting the Congress vice-president, Kumar met Prasad at a meeting chaired by Mulayam Singh at his residence. This face-to-face meeting came in the backdrop of days of political jousting between Kumar, Prasad and second-rung leaders of their two parties.

SP generalsecretary Ram Gopal Yadav and JD(U) president Sharad Yadav were present. After the two-hour meeting, Ram Gopal said the leaders had put in place a six-member committee, three each from RJD and JD(U), to discuss seat-sharing. On the contentious issue of chief ministerial candidate of the alliance, Ram Gopal said: "There is no dispute. These things will be taken care of later."

Kumar wants himself to be projected as the CM candidate, while Prasad feels this could be decided after the election.

Prasad cannot contest elections after he was convicted in the fodder scam.