Cong miffed with RJD’s seat-sharing formula

Frustrated over the seat adjustment stalemate and a suggestion in the Rashtriya Janata Dal quarters that the Congress could share up to 22 of its own seats with the grand alliance, the party on Tuesday hit out at the RJD.

“We have nothing to with the RJD. Our alliance is with Janata Dal (United). The seat adjustment talks should be concluded at the earliest,” said Sadanand Singh, senior Congress leader.

The statement came follow- ing a suggestion in the alliance quarters that the RJD and the JD(U) could share 22 of the seats allocated to the Congress as a compromise formula for their own inability to arrive at the seat adjustments in 37 constituencies, which they both claim.

Sources said Singh’s statement was an indirect attempt to put a pressure on chief minister Nitish Kumar to finalise the seat adjustments in the three-party alliance by getting the RJD’s approval for 140 seats — 100 of the JD(U) and 40 of the Congress.

The sources added SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav had played an arbiter’s role by pushing the ‘sitting seat formula under which each of the allies would have retained their seats and barter rest of the seats as per a winnability factor.’ However, after the SP chief’s disassociation from the grand alliance, the RJD and the JD(U) deviated from the formula in a bid to encroach on each other’s turf.

“The RJD wants to have a sizeable number of the JD(U)’s sitting seats since it feels it has a larger social base. The JD(U) does not want to give its sitting seats, fearing it would annoy its MLAs and trigger an exodus to the BJP. In this tug of war, the Congress has started facing a real problem,” said a senior JD(U) leader.

We have nothing to with the RJD. Our alliance is with the Janata Dal (United). The seat adjustment talks should be concluded at the earliest

SADANAND SINGH, Congress leader