PATNA: The seat-sharing talks between Congress and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) have been finalized, and the same would be formally announced on Friday, according to sources close to RJD chief Lalu Prasad’s family.Former deputy chief minister and RJD leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, Congress state president Akhilesh Prasad Singh, and other leaders of the grand alliance, including three Left parties, are expected to be present at the press conference.According to the seat-sharing deal, RJD will contest 26 seats, while Congress will field its candidates on nine seats. Five seats have been allocated to CPI-ML, CPI, and CPI(M), who are keen to contest on their traditional seats.Congress has, however, conceded to give two seats to RJD in exchange for nine seats given to the grand old party in Bihar. Earlier, RJD was adamant about not giving more than six or seven seats to Congress.RJD is not in a mood to spare the Purnea Lok Sabha seat for Congress, which wanted to field former MP Rajesh Ranjan, alias Pappu Yadav, from the seat. Pappu joined Congress after merging his party with the grand old party in New Delhi recently.RJD is learned to have conceded to give the Katihar seat to Congress in exchange for the Purnea seat where the former has fielded a turncoat, Bima Bharti.In fact, RJD wanted to field former Rajya Sabha member Asfaq Karim from Katihar. On the other hand, former Union Minister and ex-MP Tariq Anwar is the claimant to the Katihar seat, which he had unsuccessfully fought as a Congress candidate in the 2019 election. Anwar had won the seat in the 2014 Lok Sabha election.Katihar and Purnea seats are among the five seats where the opposition ‘INDIA’ bloc allies are at loggerheads.When contacted for comments, Bihar Congress president Akhilesh said, “We have finalized the seat-sharing deal, and a formal announcement will be made soon.” He, however, refused to disclose the names of the nine seats allocated to Congress.Lok Sabha elections for the 40 seats in Bihar will be held in seven phases on April 19, 26, May 7, 13, 20, 25, and June 1. Votes will be counted on June 4th.
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