File photo of RJD chief Lalu Yadav
The Congress and Rashtriya Janata Dal, or the RJD, have, after prolonged negotiations, arrived at a seat-sharing pact for the Lok Sabha polls in Bihar, with Mr Lalu Prasad Yadav's party deciding to contest 27 seats.
The Congress will be fielding its candidate in a dozen constituencies, while Katihar will be left for the Nationalist Congress Party, or the NCP, which is headed by Union minister Sharad Pawar.
Seat-sharing talks between the two parties had almost collapsed, with Mr Yadav making it clear that his party would not concede more than 11 seats to the Congress. He had also declared that his party would not give up its claim on the Madhubani Lok Sabha constituency. The Congress wanted the seat for Shakeel Ahmed, who is a party general secretary. In the end, the RJD had its way. It is likely to field its legislature party leader Abdul Bari Siddiqui from the constituency.
The RJD eventually decided to part with Muzzafarpur, in addition to the 11 seats it had left initially for the Congress. Rahul Gandhi's party will contest from Samastipur, Sasaram, Aurangabad, Kishanganj, Purnea, Suapul, Valmikinagar , Hajipur, Patna Saheb , Nalanda and Gopalganj.
In the 2009 general election, the Congress could only win two seats. While Meira Kumar, who went on to become the Lok Sabha Speaker, emerged victorious from Sasaram, Mohammad Asrarul Haq walked away with the Kishanganj constituency.
The party will be fielding former Kerala Governor Nikhil Kumar, who resigned from his post yesterday, from Aurangabad, while former union minister Akhilesh Prasad Singh is likely to enter the fray from Muzaffarpur.
Bihar Congress leaders, sources said, are not very happy with the seat-sharing agreement. None of top leaders, such as state unit chief Ashok Choudhary and former assembly speaker Sadanand Singh, besides Mr Ahmed, will be able to contest the parliamentary elections, they allege.
Union minister Tariq Anwar will be the NCP candidate from Katihar.