Congress-RJD alliance talks stall on seat sharing

NEW DELHI: Hard-nosed bargaining for seats has stalled alliance talks between Congress and Rashtriya Janata Dal in Bihar, with Lalu Prasad insisting on a greater share for himself than the allies are ready to concede.

The RJD is willing to give Congress not more than 11 seats while the latter wants 13. The demand from LJP of Ram Vilas Paswan is also not acceptable to Lalu who remains the biggest partner of the combination in the works.

The division of seats in Bihar remains a contentious issue because of eagerness of the partners involved. Congress views Bihar as one of the few states where it can increase its tally and hence wants more seats to contest. Paswan too wants to contest on more seats than his party's organizational spread deserves because he won none in 2009.

Sources said the talks over the alliance are stuck over seat-sharing but may start moving soon. There is little doubt that the three parties would be patching up ahead of elections because contesting separately raises the prospect of virtual decimation.

Bihar has changed from 2009 with JD(U) and BJP breaking up after a long alliance, and the joining of hands by RJD, Congress and LJP would make it a three-cornered contest. UPA believes it would stand to gain as Congress-RJD-LJP would make a rainbow coalition of castes and minorities.

Though no formal announcement has been made about UPA in Bihar, sources said it is certain that Congress would join hands with Lalu and Paswan. The partners of UPA-1 had split in 2009 and were nearly wiped out.

Lalu is learnt to have argued that Congress take 11 seats while Paswan could contest six of the 40 seats. Given that the alliance is a near certainty, Congress may end up contesting a couple of seats more.

Bihar, where Congress won just one seat in 2009, has raised the party's hopes of increase in its tally. This, along with Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka and Odisha are a few states where the party thinks it can improve over its 2009 performance.