‘Mahagathbandhan Contesting Elections Together,’ Says Gehlot
The ruffles in the Mahagathbandhan alliance appear to have settled down after Senior Congress Leader Ashok Gehlot and AICC Bihar in-charge Krishna Allavaru met with RJD Leader Tejashwi Yadav at his residence in Patna.
After the meeting Gehlot refused to be drawn into the exact seat sharing numbers claiming that there could be a friendly fight between allies in 5-10 seats.
Ashok Gehlot, said, “We had a good discussion. There is a press conference tomorrow. Every confusion will be clear tomorrow. The Mahagathbandhan is contesting the elections together. There are 243 seats in Bihar; there can be a friendly fight on 5-10 seats…”
Gehlot said that Rahul Gandhi, the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha and Tejashwi Yadav would campaign together, However, the senior Congress leaders did not reveal if Tejashwi would be the CM face of the alliance.
“We had a good discussion with Lalu ji and Tejashwi Yadav. There is a press conference tomorrow, and everything will be clear. We are going to contest strongly against the NDA. Rahul Gandhi and Tejashwi Yadav will start the election campaign together. There are 243 seats in Bihar, and at times, there can be a friendly fight on 5-7 seats. We will campaign together and win the elections,” Gehlot.
AICC In-charge for Bihar, Krishna Allavaru also left all details for the news conference called by the allies for Thursday.
“We had a discussion on the strategies ahead and how we can work for the people of the state after forming the government here. Every detail will be given tomorrow. NDA should answer what they have done in the last 5 years,” Allavaru said.
The Mahagathbandhan has about 12 seats where at least two allies have filed nominations from. However, this notion of a friendly fight has invited criticism from the NDA alliance which has had no fissures after its seat sharing arrangements were announced. LJP Leader Chirag Paswan said that alliance has collapsed before the first ballot could be cast.
“The way an infighting is going on in the Mahagathbandhan and the way the alliance has completely collapsed, even after that if they are thinking that they will come to power, I think it is nothing less than ‘Mungeri Lal ke sapne’… Today, after so many days, they addressed the media. Where were they for so long? Today, Ashok Gehlot has come to Bihar after everything is over in the Mahagathbandhan. Where is Rahul Gandhi? Isn’t it the responsibility of senior leaders to sit and sort things out maturely? This shows that the alliance that cannot keep its parties together, how will it keep the 14 crore people of Bihar together?… These people either don’t know how to form an alliance or how to keep the alliance intact. The people of Bihar have understood that they are not going to give the state into their hands… The result that we saw in Haryana, the same result we are going to see in Bihar for Mahagathbandhan,” Paswan said.
The assembly elections in Bihar are scheduled to be held on November 6 and 11, respectively, while the results will be declared on November 14. (ANI)
