Mahagathbandhan's friendly fight on several seats a strategy or disagreement?

The Mahagathbandhan will be facing a friendly contest on more than half a dozen seats, leading NDA leaders to claim that the opposition bloc has failed to behave like a cohesive alliance. There is a clear disagreement over several constituencies, with each party fielding candidates as per its own decision. However, opposition leaders say this may also be part of a broader strategy to outsmart the NDA in select seats.

According to party leaders, the alliance has experimented with friendly contests in the Kahalgaon assembly segment, where there will be a four-cornered fight, and possibly in another constituency. “But there is disagreement on other seats,” a leader said.

Congress MP from Bihar Akhilesh Prasad Singh told THE WEEK, “The party will continue its efforts to settle things on the seats where there are friendly fights and see if anyone can withdraw from contesting.”

Party leaders say there were strong contenders in more than one party, which led to the disagreement in the first place. A senior Congress leader added that the process of assessing candidate credibility on the ground began in May, when teams were deployed in each assembly segment to identify the best candidates. “For example, let's say five candidates were shortlisted from each constituency by Congress. Then it was up to the central leadership to decide which one should be finalised. Caste combination, loyalty, and dedication to party work were among the factors considered,” said a leader.

This is also the first time that each party in the alliance decided to run every candidate by its partners and seek suggestions before finalising names. After this consultation, each party would deliberate on the feedback from the others. However the alliance partners could not avoid confrontation on select seats.

Congress leaders believe this marks the first instance where the party has sent out a strong message that it is no longer a subordinate partner of the RJD and is beginning to chart its own course – one that prioritises Congress’s interests over those of the RJD. “In seat sharing, we stood our ground. We are also trying to build our cadre, which will only strengthen in the times ahead,” said a senior leader.

Congress in-charge Krishna Allavaru, according to insiders, had put in strong claims for more than 55 seats. He reportedly set criteria that Congress would only take seats where it already has sitting legislators, seats where it finished second in the 2020 assembly elections, or constituencies where the party had secured over 20,000 votes.

As a result, RJD’s chief ministerial face Tejashwi Yadav flew to Delhi to meet Rahul Gandhi to resolve the seat-sharing issue. A senior party insider said, “He came to Delhi and met K.C. Venugopal. He was offering just 52 seats to Congress, which Venugopal refused, so there was no further process taken into consideration after that. When the seats were rejected in the very first meeting, there was no reason to meet Rahul Gandhi. Therefore, no meeting took place between the top two leaders.”

India