The Congress said on September 26 that it is ready to fight the elections on all 243 seats in the Bihar state assembly, with the polls scheduled for the end of October. The party said it will contest in alliance with its partner, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), if a "respectable" understanding is forged.
"Congress is fully prepared to fight the elections on all 243 seats in Bihar Assembly. If we reach a respectable understanding with RJD, we will contest the elections with them," Avinash Pande, Congress' screening committee chairman for the Bihar polls, said.
Earlier, reports had suggested that the Congress had not taken a decision on who could be the Grand Alliance's Chief Ministerial face in Bihar. One of the members, the Rashtriya Lok Samta Party's (RLSP) Upendra Kushwaha, who had broken ties with the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government in Bihar, had said that he "cannot accept the leadership of Tejashwi Yadav", who heads the RJD.
There were also reports suggesting discontent within the Grand Alliance, led by the RJD, with the Left parties stating that RJD is yet to respond to a list of seats they wanted to contest.
The Election Commission had announced dates for the 2020 Bihar Legislative Assembly election on September 25. The polls will be held in three phases starting from October 28, amid the novel coronavirus pandemic. The counting of votes will happen on November 10.
