Lalu gives 51 seats to Cong, BJP allows Dal upper hand

The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) and the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) today announced their seat adjustment plans for the Bihar Assembly polls.

The Janata Dal(U), the dominant NDA partner in Bihar, also announced its first list of candidates, covering 70 of the 141 seats that it will contest.

Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad today declared the seat-adjustment plan for the UPA with the Congress managing to get 51 seats in a state where its tally could not cross double digits in the last Assembly polls.

The RJD will be contesting 175 seats, while the CPI(M) has been given nine seats and the Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), eight.

The UPA's common minimum programme for the Bihar polls will be announced on September 30.

Lok Janashakti Party (LJP) leader Ramvilas Paswan has been left out in the cold although he, too, has fashioned an alliance of sorts with the CPI, the All-India Forward Bloc and the Revolutionary Socialist Party.

The NDA's negotiations, which went on till late last night at JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav's residence, saw the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) give up its claim on three seats where LJP candidates, who have now joined the JD(U), had won last time.

Thus, the JD(U) will be contesting 141 seats and the BJP, 102 (down from 105 in the previous election). The JD(U)'s first list also reflects the fact that it has had to adjust those 21 MLAs of the LJP who had defected earlier this year.

Of the 70 seats declared, the JD(U) has announced that 54 of its 55 sitting MLAs will be repeated, while 13 out of 21 LJP legislators have been assured seats and three former independent candidates have been given tickets. "Other former LJP legislators will also be adjusted in the next list," said Yadav.

Yadav said the JD(U) would be opposing the UPA's proposed five per cent reservation for Muslims in government jobs. "This is unconstitutional and we oppose it. We support the inclusion of Dalit Muslims and Christians in the list of SC/STs in the Constitution, however," he said.