Seat deal elusive, GA likely to face 'friendly fight' in at least 10 seats

The Opposition’s Grand Alliance comprising the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Congress, Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP), CPI-ML (Liberation), CPI, CPM, and the Indian Inclusive Party (IIP) may witness “friendly fights” in at least 10 assembly constituencies across two phases of the upcoming Bihar elections.

- Subhash Pathak

The coalition has till Thursday - the last day for withdrawal of nominations for the second phase, where 122 seats go to the polls on November Il-to sort outits differences. For the first phase, the deadline got already over on October 20. As of now, the RJD is contesting on 143 seats, the Congress on 61, VIP on 15, the three Left parties on 33 and Indian Inclusive Party ‘on one seat. This means that for 243 seats, the number of candidates from the alliance is 253.

Whilealliance leaders insist the disputes are “minor and resolvable’, the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has alleged that the opposition bloc is in a disarray.