Tejashwi reprimands CPI(ML) over seat-sharing in Bihar for Lok Sabha polls

Bihar Deputy Chief Minister and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav has reprimanded CPI(ML) Liberation for going public about its demand for seats in the Lok Sabha election.

Seat sharing is a hot topic between members of the opposition that make the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA). The CPI(ML) had said on Thursday that it wants to contest in five out of the 40 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar.

A delegation comprising three politburo members had called on Yadav to raise their demand. Later, CPI(ML) General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya, without disclosing a definite number, said his party wanted to contest seats in Saran, Gaya and Shahabad divisions.

On Friday, Yadav told media persons that seat sharing wasn't a matter to be discussed with the media. “This is an internal matter, we can't share that with the media. The (ruling) Mahagathbandhan will decide,” Yadav said.

The CPI(ML) has 12 seats in the 243-member state assembly and it is fourth in the order of strength behind Lalu Prasad's RJD, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's JD(U) and the Congress. The CPI(ML) has more seats than the other left parties, CPI and CPI(M).

However, the CPI(ML) has not won a Lok Sabha seat in recent elections. Its leaders have claimed that the party has the potential, pointing towards its strike rate in the 2020 assembly polls when it was given only 19 seats to contest.

While other constituents of the coalition have, so far, refrained from going on record about their respective claims, the JD(U) would not agree to contest less than 16, its current strength in the Lok Sabha.

A Mahagathbandhan leader who did not wish to be named said, "The CPI, too, has indicated that it wants to contest three Lok Sabha seats. The CPI(M) may want its share. These competing claims have left us in a quandary. These could be accommodated only if we had close to 50 seats".

The CPI(ML), in its statement after the meeting with Tejashwi Yadav, advised JD(U) leaders to "refrain from unnecessary utterances on seat-sharing which show the coalition in bad light".
(With PTI inputs)