RLSP wants to contest five Lok Sabha seats in Bihar, one in Jharkhand

PATNA: With the RLSP expressing its desire to contest five of 40 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar during 2019 general election, the RJD-led grand alliance (GA) may witness more scramble for seats in case Upendra Kushwaha’s party formally joins the opposition camp.
Sources in the Bihar’s opposition camp say the RLSP leadership has coonveyed the Congress and the RJD to contest at least five seats in Bihar and one in neighbouring Jharkhand.
“Besides Karakat and Sitamarhi that are our sitting seats represented by Kushwaha and Ram Kumar Sharma respectively, the party wants to contest Ujiyarpur, East Champaran (Motihari) and Jehanabad in Bihar and one seat in Jharkhand,” a senior RLSP functionary, who didn’t want to be identified, revealed to TOI.
He said the RLSP had initially staked its claim on Jharkhand’s Chatra seat for the party’s working president Nagmani. “But, we were told that the RJD chief Lalu Prasad has already promised to give Chatra seat to someone else. Hence, the RLSP wants another Kushwaha/Kurmi-dominated seat for Nagmani. It could be Hazaribagh,” the RLSP leader said.
Insiders in the RLSP said the party wanted to field its national spokesperson Madhaw Anand from East Champaran while Ujiarpur would be kept reserve for Kushwaha if he decided to change his constituency. The party wants Jehanabad to field an upper caste leader.
Currently, the grand alliance comprises RJD, Congress and Jitan Ram Manjhi-led HAM(S). The GA’s main leader and RJD chief Lalu Prasad has already made up his mind to provide some seats to few other like-minded secular and Left parties. The HAM(S) too wants to contest from at least three seats. “The party wants Gaya seat for its president Manjhi, Vaishali for former minister Brishen Patel and Jehanabad for former MLA Rahul Sharma, son of former MP Jagdish Sharma,” said a HAM(S) functionary.
Besides, Sharad Yadav-led Loktantrik Janta Dal (LJD) wants at least three seats. “Madehpura for Sharad, Jamui for former Bihar speaker Uday Narain Choudhary and Sheohar for former MP Arjun Rai,” a senior leader of opposition camp said.
In the meantime, there is talk of the LJD’s merger with the RLSP. “The merger talk is in initial stage. If Sharad Yadav agrees to merge his party with the RLSP, we will seek extra seats for the LJD leaders from the GA,” the RLSP functionary said.
The Congress which is the second biggest ally in the GA after the RJD, had contested 12 seats in 2014 general elections. The party is yet to make its formal claim. After its recent victory in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhatisgarh, the party is bound to stake claim on more Lok Sabha seats than it contested in 2014. The three major Left parties—CPI, CPM and CPIML have already expressed their desire to contest from more than a dozen seats.