No big or small player in INDIA Bloc, says Shahnawaz Alam

Congress's national secretary and Bihar in-charge Shahnawaz Alam said on Monday that there are no big or small players in the INDIA Bloc. 

“We must reinforce the ideological foundation of the coalition, rather than a hierarchy of power. Congress workers should not view themselves as subordinate to other alliance partners. Any decisions within the alliance would incorporate the input of Congress workers,” he said. 

He said that the distribution of seats should be based on the strike rate—a metric reflecting the performance of parties in recent elections, particularly the Lok Sabha polls.

This formula, if implemented, could lead to renegotiations within the alliance, potentially unsettling the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), led by Tejashwi Yadav, which has traditionally been the dominant partner in the state.

The Congress's proposition to base seat-sharing for the upcoming Bihar Assembly elections on the strike rate from the 2024 Lok Sabha elections has introduced a significant challenge for the RJD. 

RJD contested 23 seats and won four, yielding a strike rate of 17 per cent. Congress contested nine seats and won three, achieving a strike rate of 33 per cent.

CPI (ML), with the highest strike rate, contested three seats and won two, marking 67 per cent success.

The RJD, traditionally the dominant player in Bihar's Mahagathbandhan, finds itself with the weakest strike rate. If Congress's formula is accepted, RJD would lose a significant portion of its negotiating power in seat-sharing arrangements. This could disrupt the established hierarchy within the alliance, wherein RJD has historically been the "big brother."