Unease in Congress State unit over delay in seat sharing for Bihar polls

Amid delays over seat-sharing meetings among constituents of the Mahagathbandhan (grand alliance), leaders of the Opposition bloc’s partner Congress on Saturday (October 11, 2025) said they were getting “restive and unnerved” while pointing out that the party should emerge out of the political shadow of Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) in Bihar and contest the upcoming Assembly polls all alone.

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The Mahagathbandhan is likely to announce its seat distribution among allies on Sunday (October 12, 2025). Tejashwi Yadav, leader of the principal ally RJD, may visit New Delhi on Saturday (October 11, 2025) night to hold a final round of talks with Congress leaders before announcement of the list of party candidates.

Meanwhile, Tej Pratap Yadav, elder brother of Tejashwi Yadav, who was ousted from the party and has floated a new political outfit Janshakti Janata Dal, said on Saturday (October 11, 2025) that his party would announce the names of candidates on October 13 but he would contest from Mahua Assembly constituency in Vaishali district. Tej Pratap Yadav is currently MLA from the Hasanpur constituency in Samastipur district.

“We urge our party leadership to consider contesting the upcoming Assembly election in Bihar independently, if the RJD delays in giving respectful seats to our party. Congress has nothing to lose. Under a political design, RJD for a long time kept Congress party waiting for the final decision over number of seats to weaken our party in the State,” senior Congress leader from Bihar and former member of All India Congress Committee (AICC) Kishore Kumar Jha told The Hindu over phone.

“The RJD leadership must recognise Congress party’s renewed strength under Rahul Gandhi’s leadership and the renewed political vigour after his recently held Voters’ Adhikar Yatra in over 24 districts of the State covering 1,300 km for 14 days,” he said. Mr. Jha comes from Madhubani district in north Bihar.

“For how long can we keep waiting and holding meeting upon meeting to beg for more number of seats to contest? It (contesting alone) should be done once and for all. We should contest the polls alone to let our principal alliance partner RJD know our renewed political strength in the State,” fumed another leader who was earlier an MLA.

In the 2020 Assembly election, the Congress had contested 70 seats but won only 19 with a poor strike rate in comparison to other alliance partners. The buzz in political circles is that the Congress party wants to contest 65-68 seats this time around while the RJD is not willing to spare more than 54-56 seats to the party as it needs to accommodate other alliance partners like Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) and Pashupati Kumar Paras-led Rashtriya Lok Janshakti Party.

Sources in RJD, though, said the demand of Mukesh Sahani-led Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP) for 40 seats and the post of Deputy Chief Minister is proving to be the biggest stumbling block for the Mahagathbandhan to finalise the list of candidates. “Every ally in Mahagathbandhan has to sacrifice some seats to accommodate the junior partners and hopefully it will be done by tomorrow (Sunday),” a senior RJD leader said on condition of anonymity.

“Being the lead partner, the RJD has to take the lead and finalise the mutually agreed-upon list of candidates among allies but the delay is agonising for us as the poll dates are knocking at the door with very little time left for probable candidates to begin campaigning,” the former Congress MLA said.

Another Congress leader said: “In the next 24 hours, the final list of candidates of parties will be announced. Everything has been finalised except some glitches over a few seats and that too will be done amicably in the next few hours.” He also claimed that this time the party’s electoral performance in Bihar will surprise many political pundits.