Patna: A day after the Bihar Mahagathbandhan snubbed the Left by excluding them from the seat-sharing formula, the CPI confirmed that it would field former JNUSU president Kahnhaiya Kumar from the Begusarai Lok Sabha seat.
Slamming the Grand Alliance, the Left said the CPI(ML) Liberation, the major Left party in Bihar, will now contest in five seats and extend support to the CPI and the CPI(M) which have declared their nominees for two Lok Sabha constituencies.
"Had the Left been taken aboard, it would have added to the credibility of the challenge that the anti-BJP parties seek to pose to the NDA. It seems the Grand Alliance has not learnt its lessons from the betrayal of mandate," CPI(ML) Liberation state secretary Kunal said in a statement. He was referring to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who heads the JD(U), walking out of the Mahagathbandhan in 2017 and returning to the NDA.
The opposition 'Mahagathbandhan' Friday announced its seat-sharing formula for the 40 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar, half of which will be fought by the RJD and nine by the Congress.
New entrants to the Grand Alliance Upendra Kushwaha's Rashtriya Lok Samta Party (RLSP) and Mukesh Sahni's Vikasheel Insan Party (VIP) will field candidates on five and three seats respectively. Former chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi's Hindustan Awam Morcha (HAM) has been given three seats.
"The Left had, on its own, decided to contest very few seats this time in order to prevent division of anti-BJP votes. The manner in which the seats have been allocated can be called anything but just," Kunal added.
The CPI(ML) has already announced candidature of Raju Yadav, from Ara. The NDA has fielded Union minister RK Singh, the sitting BJP MP, from the seat. CPI(M) state secretary Awadhesh said the party politburo has objected to the manner in which the seat-sharing formula was announced, keeping the Left out of the formation.
"We have decided to field young member of our state secretariat Ajay Kumar from Ujiarpur. We will be supporting other Left parties in seats where they field their candidates," Awadhesh said.
The NDA has fielded state BJP state president and sitting MP Nityanand Rai from Ujiarpur.
Announcement of the seat-sharing formula by the Grand Alliance had evoked resentment from CPI secretary general Sudhakar Reddy on Friday. "We had an understanding with Lalu Prasad Yadav, but he is in jail. So, I don't know how things have been conveyed to his son (Tejashwi Yadav). He had agreed for six seats, including Begusarai and Madhubani," Reddy had said.