Bihar Opposition Alliance Faces Internal Conflicts as Congress and RJD Clash Over Seat Sharing and Leadership

New Delhi:

The Opposition Grand Alliance in Bihar has yet to finalize its seat-sharing arrangement despite elections approaching within weeks, leading parties to begin fielding their own candidates. This situation has created an inevitable scenario for friendly fire across multiple constituencies. While the Congress discusses potential ways to avoid such conflicts, they have expressed their dissatisfaction by refusing to endorse Tejashwi Yadav as the Opposition's Chief Ministerial candidate.

Senior Congress leader Pawan Khera confirmed that despite the likelihood of forming a Grand Alliance government in Bihar, friendly contests between alliance partners may become commonplace rather than exceptions in this election cycle.

"In constituencies where multiple Grand Alliance candidates have submitted nominations, one nomination will be withdrawn within one to two days," Khera stated.

He added, "The Chief Ministerial face will be announced at an appropriate time."

His comments follow a developing situation that could lead to friendly fire between alliance partners in the constituency represented by Congress State President Rajesh Ram.

Kutumba, a constituency reserved for Scheduled Castes in Aurangabad district, has emerged as a point of contention between Congress and Tejashwi Yadav's Rashtriya Janata Dal.

While Congress has granted Rajesh Ram the party symbol, RJD has also fielded its own candidate – former minister Suresh Paswan.

Paswan has declared his intention to contest the election under the RJD symbol with plans to file his nomination on October 20. Rajesh Ram is also scheduled to file his nomination on the same day.

The Congress has been demanding over 70 seats, insisting that a significant portion should be constituencies where they have strong winning prospects.

To leverage this demand, the party has deliberately withheld its agreement to confirm Tejashwi Yadav as the Chief Ministerial candidate for the alliance.

Indeed, the party has maintained notable silence despite Yadav's open declarations on the matter.

However, the RJD, clearly the dominant partner in the Bihar alliance, has not issued any response to this situation.