The Congress party has identified 113 assembly seats of the 243 seats, where it stands a good chance of winning and would like to contest in the assembly polls in Bihar in alliance with Rashtriya Janata Dal and other United Progressive Alliance constituents.
"The seats were identified after a marathon meeing of the state election committee of the Congress late on Sunday night," said Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee spokesman Kripanath Pathak .
Pathak said that the party had 'broadly decided' to contest the 10 seats it had won in the February polls, as many where it had finished second, the seats where RJD candidates had lost by a margin of 10,000 or more votes and where RJD nominees finished second but had not won in last three successive elections.
Sources in the Congress said on the basis of the seats identified after the internal assessment , the state congress president Sadanand Singh and party general secretary and incharge of Bihar affairs, Digvijay Singh, would hold parleys with the allies for final seat adjustment.
Unlike in the past, this time, the state election committee has identified the seats likely to be contested by the party. Earlier, this committee authorised the party high command to decide the number of seats it intended to contest and the candidates.
Digvijay Singh said that probability of a win would be the key factor for giving party tickets. "The party will not put up candidates merely for the sake of contesting a large number of seats. Only after talks with UPA allies, will it be clear what is the exact number of seats the Congress would contest," he said.
Pathak also said that the Congress's stand on the number of seats would not be rigid. The Congress had contested 84 seats in the last assembly polls in a half-baked alliance with RJD and Lok Janshakti Party and the UPA partners had fought among themselves in a number of constituencies.