Published 17:03 IST, October 7th 2020
Bihar polls: Mukesh Sahni-led VIP joins NDA; to contest on 11 seats from BJP's quota
On Wednesday, Mukesh Sahni-led Vikassheel Insaan Party formally joined the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) ahead of the upcoming Bihar Assembly election.
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On Wednesday, Mukesh Sahni-led Vikassheel Insaan Party formally joined the National Democratic Alliance ahead of the upcoming Bihar Assembly election. Addressing a press conference, Bihar BJP chief Sanjay Jaiswal announced that BJP will cede 11 of its 121 allocated seats to VIP in the Bihar polls. On the other hand, JD(U) and HAM will contest 115 and 7 seats respectively. While VIP was a part of the opposition Mahagatbandhan, it exited the alliance owing to a raw seat-sharing deal offered by RJD.
On this occasion, he also revealed that VIP will be given one MLC ticket as well. The latest addition to the NDA assumes significance amid LJP's decision to go solo in the Bihar polls. While LJP national president Chirag Paswan has acknowledged ideological differences with JD(U), he has predicted that the newly elected MLAs of his party would join hands with BJP to form the government.
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Bihar election 2020
The Bihar Assembly has a strength of 243 members out of which 38 seats are reserved for SC and two for ST. In the 2015 state polls, the Mahagatbandhan comprising RJD, JD(U) and Congress won a whopping majority with 178 seats under the leadership of Nitish Kumar. On the other hand, the BJP-led alliance won from only 58 constituencies. On July 26, 2017, Nitish Kumar stepped down as the CM citing irreconcilable differences with RJD over corruption allegations against Tejashwi Yadav and joined hands with its former ally BJP.
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The upcoming Assembly election will be held in 3 phases- October 28, November 3 and November 7. To decongest polling stations, the voting time has been increased by one hour. Thus, people will be able to cast their votes from 7 am to 6 pm barring for the areas affected by Left-wing extremism. The counting of votes will take place on November 10. As per the Mahagatbandhan's announcement, RJD, Congress, CPI(M-L), CPI and CPI (Marxist) will contest 144, 70, 19, 6 and 4 seats respectively. Though it was clarified that JMM would also be accommodated in the RJD's quota, there is no clarity on the number of seats it will contest from.
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17:03 IST, October 7th 2020