After seat sharing trouble in the National Democratic Alliance, murmurs of dissent are also being heard in the Mahagathbandhan. Even though Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar announced that the Janata Dal United-Rashtriya Janata Dal-Congress will declare the seats each of them will contest on September 19, some leaders who are likely to be denied tickets have already registered their protests with some of them also in touch with the rival camp.
JDU national president Sharad Yadav, too, is miffed at some of his close aides being denied the ticket. As a mark of protest he left for Delhi soon after the JDU meeting to decide the candidates.
With both RJD and Congress eyeing several seats won by JDU in the 2010 elections, Nitish Kumar is facing a tough time in convincing his party leaders. Even the candidature of some ministers is uncertain.
The JDU meeting was held at Nitish Kumar's residence and apart from Sharad Yadav it was attended by Bihar unit chief Bashistha Narain Singh, Food and Civil Supplies Minister Shyam Rajak, Water Resources Minister Vijay Kumar Chaudhary, Transport Minister Ramai Ram, Environment & Forest, Planning & Development Minister PK Sahi and Road Construction Minister Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lallan Singh and a host of other leaders
At the RJD meeting party supremo Lalu Yadav, too, faced many discontented leaders. He added that unlike the NDA, there was no problem in the Mahagathbandhan regarding seat sharing but warned those RJD leaders protesting against denial of tickets to not threaten him.
Pointing out compulsions of coalition politics, Lalu told RJD leaders that the party was contesting on only 100 seats and so all aspirants can not be accommodated. He asked RJD workers to remain united and work for the victory of all Mahagathbandhan candidates.
Former Bihar chief minister Rabri Devi, Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, Ramchandra Purve, Abdul Bari Siddiqui, Illiyas Hussain, Prabhunath Singh and others were present at the meeting. A resolution at the meeting authorised Lalu to finalise the candidates' list.
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