Seat pact unclear, Cong forms panel

With just three days remaining in filing of nomination for the first-phase polling in Bihar, the seat-sharing talks in Opposition grand alliance was yet to take a final shape till Tuesday, even as the Congress central election committee (CEC) finalised names on several seats and formed a four-member panel led by AICC treasurer Ajay Maken to finalise remaining names of candidates.

- Saubhadra Chatterji and Anirban Guha Roy

The CEC, the party’s top body to pick candidates for elections, cleared names of candidates on 18-20 seats in its second meeting ‘on Tuesday. Ithad cleared around 25 names last week.

‘Ambiguity over the number of seats the party would contest as part of the Mahagathbandhan as well as the choice of seats has led to confusion in finalising the candidates. “The queries about how many seats we are getting and which seats came up during the meeting but there was no clarity. The Bihar leadership of our party said they are hopeful of sealing a seat deal with the RJD very soon,” a senior member of the CEC said, declining to be named.

October 17 is the last date of filing nomination for the first phase of pollingis on November 6.