Patna: Janata Dal United and Rashtriya Janata Dal will contest 100 seats each for the 243-member Bihar Assembly elections, announced Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in Patna on Wednesday. As per the seat agreement Congress will put up candidates in 40 constituencies.
In the last Assembly elections in 2010, the JDU had contested 141 seats in alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party which had fought on 102. But Nitish Kumar broke the alliance with BJP in June 2013 over the projection of Narendra Modi as the prime ministerial candidate for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
While the JDU had won 115 seats, the BJP bagged 91 ensuring Nitish Kumar's swearing-in as Bihar Chief Minister for the third time in 2010.
But now JDU is in alliance with Lalu Prasad's RJD with the Congress and Nationalist Congress Party too rallying around Nitish Kumar. Lalu, a two-time Bihar chief minister, is now debarred from contesting elections following his conviction in a fodder scam case. Lalu and his wife Rabri Devi held the post of chief ministership from 1990 to 2005 before they were routed by the Nitish Kumar-led JDU-BJP alliance.
On the other hand BJP has also expanded its alliance by including Ram Vilas Paswan's Lok Janshakti Party, Upendra Khushwaha-led Rashtriya Lok Samata Party and Hindustani Awam Morcha of Jitan Ram Manjhi. BJP leaders are also in touch with rebel RJD MP Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav who has launched his own outfit Jan Adhikar Manch.
Bihar is likely to witness a multi-phase election in October-November. The term of the current Assembly ends on November 29.
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