NEW DELHI: With Bihar set to vote for eight Legislative Council seats later this month, differences within the state’s two principal political alliances have spilled into the open, with the ruling NDA and opposition INDIA bloc both facing contests involving their own constituents and leaders.
The differences became more pronounced on Saturday when the RJD announced Kumar Rai as its candidate from Darbhanga Teachers’, pitting him against Jha. RLM state general secretary and spokesperson Ram Pukar Sinha has announced his decision to contest from the seat and is expected to file his nomination on Monday. The INDIA bloc faces the wider overlap, with the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Congress fielding candidates against each other across several constituencies despite remaining alliance partners. It fielded Sanjeev Kumar Singh from Patna Teachers’, Dilip Kumar from Patna Graduates’, Nitesh Kumar from Kosi Graduates’, Anil Kumar Jha from Darbhanga Graduates’, Jairam Yadav from Saran Teachers’ and Rashmi Vinayak Gautam from Tirhut Graduates’. At that stage, the party did not announce nominees for the Darbhanga Teachers’ and Tirhut Teachers’. With Rai’s entry, RJD and Congress candidates are now set to face each other in five constituencies, underlining the absence of a comprehensive seat-sharing arrangement for the Council polls.
The RJD initially announced six candidates on September 11.
Sinha has said he has the backing of Kushwaha and RLM state president Alok Singh.
The RJD had earlier stayed out of the constituency, raising expectations that the seat could be left for Congress.
Congress later unveiled five candidates, including former Bihar Congress president and sitting MLC Madan Mohan Jha from Darbhanga Teachers’. Its decision to field candidates from Patna, Kosi and Darbhanga graduates’ constituencies put the party directly against RJD nominees in these seats.
For the RJD and Congress, the challenge lies in managing five direct contests without allowing them to spill over into their broader relationship. For the NDA, the immediate task is to deal with the RLM’s challenge in Saran and the Anant Singh-Neeraj Kumar confrontation in Patna. What was initially expected to be another NDA-versus-INDIA bloc contest has, therefore, acquired several battles within the larger battle.
