Vikassheel Insaan Party chief Mukesh Sahani
Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP) leader Mukesh Sahani on Saturday walked out of a joint press conference held by the Rashtriya Janata Dal, the largest party in the Mahagathbandhan (Grand Alliance) to announce the seat-sharing arrangement for the upcoming assembly elections in Bihar.
The situation took a dramatic turn after Tejashwi Yadav announced the seat-sharing deal with the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) set to contest on 144 seats. Yadav said the Congress would contest on 70 seats while the CPM, CPI and CPI (ML) will contest on 4, 6 and 19 seats respectively.
He further said that the party will accommodate seats for the VIP and JMM parties from the RJD's quota since discussions were on with the two parties, in the next few days.
Sahani was upset that the RJD didn't announce the number of seats promised to the Vikassheel Insaan Party.
In the middle of the event, Rajya Sabha MP Manoj Jha asked VIP leader Mukesh Sahani to address the media after Yadav had spoken.
Sahani declared that he had been back-stabbed. "We were expecting 25 seats but when the time came, the RJD back-stabbed me and my party. They have ignored us at the critical juncture of this election as we belong to the most backward section of society," Sahani said.
After the dramatic announcement, Sahani walked off the stage of the joint press conference even as some VIP party activists raised slogans against the RJD.
"We are the most disciplined party in the Mahagathbandhan. Now, the RJD is taking another two to three days to allocate seats for us. All this is happening at a time when less than 25 days are left for polling," said VIP spokesperson Rajiv Mishra.
"We are protesting the RJD's act. They have cheated us. The Grand Alliance cannot run like this. Our party core committee will soon have a meeting to decide the future course of action," added Mishra.
Earlier in the event, Avinash Pandey, in-charge of Congress for Bihar assembly elections, said his party had joined hands with the RJD despite some differences to take on the NDA government.
"Despite some difference of opinion with the RJD, we are here to defeat the Fascist NDA government in Bihar," Pandey said.
Added veteran Congress leader Sadanand Singh: "Despite some differences, we have come together under one umbrella to contest this elections."
