Bihar elections: Opposition seat-sharing, joint manifesto likely this week

The opposition Mahagathbandhan alliance in Bihar is likely to finalise its seatsharing in the next few days and may announce its candidates along with a joint manifesto this week reported PTITop sources told PTI that talks between the RJD and Congress are underway and their leadership may meet on Monday as RJDs Lalu Prasad and Tejashwi Yadav are in the national capitalThe Congress president has been speaking to all the coalition partners in Bihar and the final discussion is on for deciding candidates in a few seats where the Congress and some other parties feel they are strong The Congress president is talking to all political leaders for the last two days in Bihar Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said reported PTIHe said the talks between the leaderships of RJD and Congress are also on and the leaders of the two main parties may also meet by MondayOn the delay in seatsharing announcement Ramesh said We have to adjust some new partners in the Mahagathbandhan and we have to adjust them too in seatsharingIn the next twothree days we expect all the seats to be finalised and declared he said reported PTIAsked about the number of seats the Congress will contest this time Ramesh said Anything between half a century and a centuryHowever sources told PTI that the Congress will get more than 50 but less than 70 seats which the Congress had contested the last time in the Bihar polls They added that top Congress leaders would be meeting at the party headquarters on Monday for finalising candidates in some more seats in the Bihar assembly pollsThe Congress is likely to get a respectable and acceptable number of seats Ramesh saidAbout the electoral prospects of the opposition Mahagathbandhan in Bihar Ramesh said The desire for change is there in Bihar and the chargesheet released by the Congress evoked a very good responseOn the jungleraj narrative of the BJP against RJD rule he said that people are worried about today and not what happened 20 years agoPeople realise and know that Nitish Kumar is not in control and he is only a face now He is not going to come back as chief minister and is not the same as he was 20 years ago the Congress leader said and accused the BJP of indulging in polarisation in Bihar tooHe said the bureaucracy is running the Bihar government currently and there is a strong feeling that Nitish Kumar is there but is not in commandThough NDA is banking upon the direct benefit transfer DBT scheme which made a good headline but the people understand the ground realities and are seeking change he claimedParty sources told PTI that the Congress is working on announcing a few schemes to counter the NDAs narrative and sops and is likely to announce them soonBesides the vote chori campaign the Congress is focusing on extremely backward classes It announced the Maibehen Maan Yojna under which Rs 2500 will be transferred into the bank accounts of underprivileged women and some more proposals are in the worksThe Congress contested on 70 assembly seats in the last Bihar polls and won 19 while the RJD contested on 144 seats and bagged 75 in the 243member AssemblyBihar assembly polls are to be held in two phases on November 6 and 11 and the counting of votes is on November 14 The filing of nomination began on October 10 for the first phase in which 121 seats will go to pollsWith inputs from PTI