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RJD, Congress fail to break seat-sharing deadlock

Tara Shankar Sahay in New Delhi

The deadlock between the Congress and the Rashtriya Janata Dal on sharing seats for the general election in Bihar is unlikely to be broken soon with RJD politicians contending that Sonia Gandhi's party will be allotted a maximum of 15 seats out of the state's 54 parliamentary constituencies.

"As things stand, our party is willing to give a maximum of 15 seats to the Congress. This was conveyed to the Congress representatives early this afternoon," RJD spokesman Shivanand Tewary said at New Delhi's Bihar Niwas.

Tewary asserted that the RJD would contest "at least 32 seats".

RJD president Laloo Prasad Yadav flew in from Patna this morning, determined to wrap up the seat-sharing deal with the Congress. The deadlock has been continuing for three weeks and four rounds of talks have failed to break it.

The Bihar unit of the Congress is applying relentless pressure on the central leadership to demand at least 23 Lok Sabha seats.

But Yadav made it clear that his party is in no position to concede the demand. When Congress politicians remained adamant, he commented sarcastically, "Then let the Congress contest all 54 seats."

According to Tewary, Laloo Yadav and senior party colleague Ranjan Yadav represented the RJD during today's two-hour-long talks. The Congress was represented by treasurer Ahmed Patel and working committee member Pranab Mukherjee.

Significantly, with four rounds of talks failing, the RJD chief had demanded that further talks should be conducted in Sonia Gandhi's presence. But Gandhi flew to Hyderabad last night, from where she went to Bellary this morning to file her nomination for the Lok Sabha.

RJD spokesman Shahid Mazdoor pointed out that though the Congress and the RJD are good friends and allies, "the political environment in Bihar is wholly in favour of Laloo alone and the Congress cannot ignore this". Therefore, the Congress should not make unrealistic demands, he said.

Mazdoor pointed out that while the RJD was willing to give 15 seats to the Congress, it would be giving four to the Communist Party of India and two to the CPI (Marxist).

It is learnt that the RJD is making way for the Congress in Ranchi, Lohardagga, Khunti, Singhbhum, Palamau, Rajmahal, Jamshedpur, Dumka, Godda, Chatra, Kodarma and Giridih constituencies.

Barring Singbhum and Lohardagga, which Congress candidates Vijay Kumar Soy and Indranath Bhagat won in the 1998 election, the other 10 constituencies went to the Bharatiya Janata Party. Therefore, it is apparent that Laloo Yadav is giving the bulk of the seats to the Congress in south Bihar, which the BJP regards as its bailiwick.

But Bihar Congress leaders like Sadanand Singh and Ramashray Prasad Singh are insisting that the party high command demand more seats to accommodate prospective candidates.

The central leadership can scarcely ignore the Bihar unit. It was only on the insistence of Sonia Gandhi and Arjun Singh that the state unit had reluctantly agreed to oppose the proclamation of President's rule in the state early this year after the Narayanpur massacre in Jehanabad district.

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