On March 18, National Democratic Alliance (NDA) announced the final allotment of seats in Bihar for the Lok Sabha polls, with the BJP set to contest 17 seats and JD-(U) 16. Jitan Ram Manjhi-led Hindustani Aawam Morcha (HAM) and Rashtriya Lok Samta Party (RLSP) will contest one seat each. Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) will contest five seats. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the NDA, comprising the BJP, JD (U) and LJP, dominated the 2019 elections by winning 39 out of 40 seats.

The exigencies of not alienating even the smallest percent of voters prevailed on the RSS and BJP leaders. Though the saffron brigade has conceded one seat each to HAM and RLSP, its leadership nonetheless is not sure that they will manage to secure victories in these constituencies. The delay in seat-sharing within the NDA owed to the clash between Chirag Paswan and his uncle Pasupati Paras. Initially, the BJP had decided to field its candidate from Hajipur, the base of Ram Vilas Paswan, but to preserve the unity of NDA it finally conceded to the pressures from Chirag, who would now contest from his father’s electoral borough. The Lok Janshakti Party (Ramvilas) will contest from Vaishali, Hajipur, Samastipur, Khagaria and Jamui seats.

In sharp contrast, even after protracted negotiations, the INDIA bloc has not yet come out with a comprehensive sear-sharing arrangement, though it announced the seat-sharing formula on March 29. Nevertheless, it has failed to satisfy the constituents. The Rashtriya Janata Dal will contest 26 of the state's 40 Lok Sabha seats, while the Congress will field candidates in nine seats. The CPI(ML) will contest on three of five seats allocated to the Left Front, and CPI and CPI(M) one each.

In 2019, Congress won only one seat, while the RJD had drawn a blank. The NDA alliance, comprising the BJP and JD(U) bagged 33 seats together. The remaining seats were won by the undivided LJP. Bihar will see polling in seven phases. The first phase of polling will be held on April 19, the second phase on April 26, the third phase on May 7, the fourth phase on May 13, the fifth phase on May 20, the sixth phase on May 25, and the seventh phase on June 1. Obviously, this implies that Amit Shah would deploy massive paramilitary forces to swing the election in NDA’s favour. It appears that while negotiating seat-sharing, the INDIA bloc leaders did not pay serious attention to this move of BJP.

One development that has been causing serious discontent in the Congress circle is denial of seat to Pappu Yadav .. Pappu had merged his party only after getting assurance from Rahul about his nomination from Purnea. . Now both Rahul Gandhi and the state unit of the Congress are embarrassed as Pappu Yadav is adamant to contest from Purnea seat.

As regards the Begusarai Lok Sabha seat given to the CPI by RJD, in the 2019 Lok Sabha Elections, BJP leader Giriraj Singh won the Begusarai seat for the first time with a margin of 4,22,217 votes. He had polled 6,92,193 votes with a vote share of 56.44%. He defeated CPI candidate Kanhaiya Kumar who got 2,69,976 votes (22.01%). RJD's Tanweer Hassan stood third with 1,98,233 votes (16.16%). It is worth mentioning that in the 2014 Lok Sabha Elections, BJP's Bhola Singh won the Begusarai seat for the first time. He was polled 4,28,227 votes with a vote share of 39.72%. RJD candidate Tanweer Hassan got 3,69,892 votes (34.31%) and was the runner-up.

Aurangabad has been a Rajput dominated seat. It is also called Chittorgarh. The RJD has fielded its candidate Abhoy Kushwaha. In the 2019 election, Sushil Singh of BJP, a Rajput leader, had won the seat, which had once been a Congress bastion. This time former Governor Nikhil Kumar, a Rajput, had requested the Congress leadership to nominate him.

Purnea has been a coveted turf for Pappu Yadav. At one stage, Lalu had sent the message to Pappu that he may contest from Madhepura, the seat represented by late Sharad Yadav or Supaul. Incidentally, both these seats have a dominance of upper class, the nouveau rich Yadavs, who have been averse to the political ascendancy of Pappu. RJD has already nominated Bima Bharti, who barely a week back migrated from JD(U) to RJD for Purnea. Swat.

PappuYadav announced his intentions to contest as the Congress candidate from here. But apprehensions are rife on whether the Congress would allow him to contest from Purnea as its official candidate. If the Congress refuses permission, Pappu may prefer to come out of Congress and contest as an independent. Incidentally, only last week Pappu had joined Congress after merging his Jan Adhikar Party with the former.

Among the Left parties, CPI (Marxist-Leninist) will contest on three seats, Ara, Nalanda and Karakat, while CPI will contest Begusarai and CPI(M) would contest the Khagaria seat. While the leaders of CPI and CPI(M) are feeling content with their share of seats, allotted keeping in view their support base and strength, the state leaders of CPI(ML) Liberation are feeling let down. A senior leader said: “We have strong base across the state and are in the enviable position to challenge the hegemony of some parties, but it is in the greater interest of preserving the interest of the INDIA bloc and ensure that the rightist and fascist forces are defeated, we have accepted the decision not to contest from Siwan”.

It is an open secret that CPI(ML) Liberation has been organising the poor peasantry of Siwan and spearheading the peasant struggle against the feudal and mafia terror of the region for more than forty years. At a time when no political leader dared to speak against dreaded don Sahabuddin, Liberation had set up its office in the heart of the town and led the peoples’ resistance movement against him. During the initial days of the struggle, over 60 Liberation workers lost their lives. CPI(ML) Liberation had won one assembly seat, also from the area.

Notwithstanding the residual confusion, the INDIA bloc leaders are quite elated and are sure of defeating BJP. They are confident of authoritatively challenging the claim of the saffron ecosystem of the electoral supremacy of Narendra Modi. (IPA Service)