Balance between 'good' and 'bad' seats must be maintained: Cong on Bihar seat sharing

New Delhi: Amid seat-sharing talks among Mahagathbandhan allies in Bihar, the Congress on Wednesday said a balance has to be maintained between seats which are "good" and "bad" in terms of winnability while allocating constituencies to parties, and all existing constituents of the alliance must contribute from their "kitty" to accommodate new partners.

The assertion comes amid talks for including the Hemant Soren-led Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) and Pashupati Kumar Paras' Rashtriya Lok Janshakti Party (RLJP) in the 'Mahagathbandhan' (Grand Alliance) of the opposition parties for the upcoming Bihar Assembly polls.

Addressing a joint press conference along with Bihar Congress chief Rajesh Ram and Congress Legislature Party Leader Shakeel Ahmad Khan, AICC in-charge of state Krishna Allavaru attacked the BJP, accusing it of indulging in "vote chori" in collusion with the Election Commission.

Allavaru alleged that a definite process for "vote theft" was being followed under which "they first fix the umpires and then give the umpire the confidence that no action would be taken against them".

"Narendra Modi and Amit Shah have advanced 'vote theft' in the country as part of a well-thought-out conspiracy. First, Narendra Modi changed the process of selecting the Election Commissioner. In this, the Chief Justice was removed and the Home Minister was included in the process. Then, a change was made in the law so that no action could be taken against the Election Commissioner," the Congress leader alleged at the press conference at the Indira Bhawan headquarters of the party.

In addition, "tampering was being done in the electoral roll, the truth of which has been laid bare before the entire country", he claimed.

He also alleged rigging on the day of polling and counting. "The biggest example of this was the Lok Sabha election in Varanasi, in which the Congress candidate was winning for several rounds, but when the live updates were stopped, Narendra Modi was declared the winner at the last moment," he claimed.

Allavaru said 'vote chori' is an issue for every single person and those who are 'vote thieves' do not care about serving the public.

"The 'vote chori government' is indifferent to issues like inflation, unemployment, education, health, migration, crime, paper leaks, and the like. 'Vote chori' is the root of every problem faced by the public. Therefore, if the situation in Bihar is to change, the government must be changed," he asserted.

Referring to Tuesday's meeting in which Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and former party chief Rahul Gandhi held discussions with Bihar party leaders, Allavaru said that the future strategy was formulated with respect to campaign, manifesto, seat sharing and candidate selection.

Asked whether the Voter Adhikar Yatra had given more bargaining power to the Congress in seat sharing with the RJD and other alliance partners in Bihar, he said the 'mahagathbandhan' has benefited from the Yatra as the "vote theft" issue has gone to the grassroots.

However, he said, this should have no bearing on seat sharing.

"We have always believed that if new parties come into the alliance, then every party will have to contribute from their kitty. In every state there are good seats and bad seats (in terms of winnability) and we believe that one party should not get all the good seats and the other gets the bad ones. In the sharing of seats, there should be a balance between good and bad seats," Allavaru said.

"Our endeavour is to take the seat sharing forward positively in good time and we are successfully doing that," he said.

Allavaru also said there was no current plan to take out another Yatra in the state under Rahul Gandhi's leadership.

Bihar Congress chief Rajesh Ram said the Yatra had flagged the issue of Aadhaar not being part of the 11 documents for identification in Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in Bihar.

"Now the Supreme Court has also ordered that Aadhaar should also be considered as authentic identification. This is the victory of the people, the victory of their rights," he said.

Besides Kharge and Gandhi, Congress general secretary in-charge (organisation) K C Venugopal, Bihar Congress chief Rajesh Ram, Allavaru, party treasurer Ajay Maken, MPs Akhilesh Prasad Singh, Ranjeet Ranjan, Tariq Anwar and Mohammed Javed, and Independent MP from Purnea Pappu Yadav participated in the meeting at the Congress president's residence here on Tuesday.

The deliberations came days after the INDIA bloc leaders in the state attended a meeting hosted by Rashtriya Janata Dal's (RJD) Tejashwi Yadav, who heads the coordination committee for the opposition coalition.