New DelhiOctober 14, 2025 08:16 AM IST
First published on: Oct 14, 2025 at 08:16 AM IST
The stalemate between the Congress and the RJD over seat sharing in Bihar continues even as some top leaders of the parties met in Delhi on Monday. Former Bihar CM Tejashwi Yadav met Congress general secretary (organisation) K C Venugopal and some other leaders in Delhi in the afternoon.
The grand alliance is racing against time to finalise seat sharing as October 17 is the last date for filing of nominations for the first phase of polling. While the NDA finalised its seat sharing on Sunday, the Opposition INDIA bloc is struggling to reach a consensus. Congress leaders in Bihar are also worried over the delay in candidate selection, which they say might impact election results.
Sources said the bone of contention between the two parties is over some specific segments, besides the total seats they want to contest. The meeting between Tejashwi and Venugopal took place at the residence of Congress Rajya Sabha member Phulo Devi Netam. Also present in the meeting were Congress in-charge (Bihar) Krishna Allavaru, state president Rajesh Ram and Bihar CLP leader Shakeel Khan.
Sources said the Congress is adamant on not contesting fewer than 65 seats, while the RJD is ready to concede 55. “The RJD has been citing the new allies in the Mahagathbandhan and asking the Congress to give up its claim on some seats. But, the Congress is citing its national credentials, and saying it won’t contest less than 65 seats in the state,” said a source, familiar with the seat-sharing talks. The Congress had contested 70 seats in 2020 and won 19.
A source said there was a detailed discussion on certain seats, including Bachhwara, from where the Congress wants to field its former MLA late Ramdeo Rai’s son Shiv Prakash Garib Das who had contested the seat in 2020 as an Independent and bagged 39,878 votes. In 2020, the CPI’s Awadhesh Kumar Rai lost the seat by just 454 votes. “The Congress wants to field Das while the RJD is adamant that the CPI candidate Awadhesh Rai should contest again on behalf of the Mahagathbandhan,” said a source.
Another bone of contention is the Narkatiaganj seat, which Congress’s Vinay Varma had contested in 2020. The RJD, it is learnt, wants to field Deepak Yadav, its candidate from Valmiki Nagar Lok Sabha constituency in 2024 who lost to Sunil Kumar Kushwaha (JDU) by 98,675 votes. “The RJD wants to field Yadav but the Congress wants to repeat Vinay Verma,” said the source. Varma had lost the 2020 elections to Rashmi Verma of the BJP by 21,134 votes and had won the 2015 elections, defeating the BJP’s Renu Devi by 16,061 votes.
The Indian Express had reported on Friday that the seat-sharing talks between the two parties were stuck because of five seats — Baisi (Purnea), Bahadurganj (Kishanganj), Raniganj (Araria), Kahalgaon (Bhagalpur), and Saharsa.
A source familiar with the Monday talks said apart from the Congress and RJD, 18-20 seats will go to Vikassheel Insaan Party led by Mukesh Sahani, and some to JMM led by Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren and RLJP of Pashupati Paras. “Sahani is not happy with 18-20 seats, but discussions will be held to placate him,” said a source.
A meeting of the Congress Central Election Committee (CEC) is scheduled in Delhi on Tuesday, where candidates are likely to be finalised for the seats other than 25 for which names are final, but the committee has yet to officially release the first list of candidates.