PATNA: Bihar’s ruling JD-U and Lalu Prasad’s RJD would contest from four assembly seats each, while the Congress would contest from two in by-elections to 10 assembly constituencies in the state, party leaders announced yesterday.
A day after the alliance of the Janata Dal-United, Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Congress was finalised, JD-U state president Vashisht Narain Singh told media persons here yesterday that the sharing of seats among the three parties has been decided.
Terming the alliance “a new beginning in Bihar to defeat communal forces”, he said: “The JD-U and the RJD would contest from four assembly seats each, and the Congress two seats.”
Earlier, JD-U leaders said a formal announcement of the alliance will be made on July 30.
Both the JD-U and the RJD have said the alliance was a must to strengthen secular forces and defeat communal parties in the state.
Former chief minister and JD-U leader Nitish Kumar has also said all secular parties needed to come together in Bihar, and included the Congress and the Left parties in the “secular” category.
Last month, the RJD supported the JD-U’s two candidates in the Rajya Sabha by-polls.
Meanwhile, Congress president Sonia Gandhi yesterday threw an Iftar party, attended by a host of political leaders, including Rashtriya Janata Dal supremo Lalu Prasad and Janata Dal-United president Sharad Yadav, whose party was earlier in the National Democratic Alliance.
The event, at Ashoka hotel here, was Gandhi’s first Iftar in three years, and the second major Iftar held this year after the iftar reception hosted by President Pranab Mukherjee at Rashtrapati Bhavan on July 21.
Gandhi’s son and Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, former prime minister Manmohan Singh and Nationalist Congress Party leader Tariq Anwar were among the other political leaders present.
IANS
