Zee Media Bureau
Patna: The alliance for 40 seats in Bihar for the upcoming General Elections was finally announced on Wednesday between the Congress, RJD and NCP.
Congress will fight on 12 Lok Sabha seats, Sharad Pawar's NCP one and the RJD will contest on 27 seats.
RJD president Lalu Prasad accompanied by Bihar Pradesh Congress committee chief Ashok Chaudhary announced the tie up of the three parties here.
"Congress would contest from Sasaram (SC, Reserved), Kisanganj, Aurangabad, Supual, Hajipur, Purnea, Patna Saheb, Nalanda, Samastipur, Gopalganj, Muzaffarpur and Balmikinagar," the RJD chief said. NCP will contest Katihar seat.
Madhubani, which had become a bone of contention between Congress and RJD and reported to be a major irritant in finalisation of the tie-up has gone to Lalu Prasad's party.
Earlier, RJD had offered 11 seats to Congress and one to NCP as a pre-condition for alliance. Reports were doing the rounds that the alliance between the RJD and the Congress may not take place as there was a tussle regarding seat sharing. The Congress had reportedly wanted to contest from 15 seats in Bihar.
The Congress had fought the 2004 General Elections in alliance with the RJD and Ram Vilas Paswan's LJP and had won 29 of the 40 Parliamentary seats. This time the LJP has gone back to the NDA fold. The talks between the LJP, RJD and the Congress failed as Ram Vilas wanted more seats then it was being offered to it in Bihar. The BJP has given seven seats to the LJP
In 2009 the Congress had fought alone as its alliance for Lok Sabha polls broke with RJD and LJP. The results were disastrous for all three parties with RJD winning only four seats, Congress two and LJP even failing to open its account.
Meanwhile, the Election Commission today announced the schedule for Lok Sabha polls 2014. Polling will be held in nine phases from April 07 to May 12 and the counting of votes will be held on May 16.
With PTI inputs
First Published: Wednesday, March 5, 2014, 20:12
