Kanhaiya Kumar opines on Mahagathbandhan's CM face Tejashwi Yadav ahead of Bihar elections

After being absent from the political scene for around two months, CPI leader and former JNU student union president Kanhaiya Kumar re-appeared on September 16 and released a statement accusing the government of 'political witch hunt' against activists and journalists. However, with days left for Bihar elections, Kanhaiya has been away from the campaign scenario and has not even been vocal about the polls on his Twitter handle. Though he had held "Jan Gan Man Yatra" in February this year and had toured the state extensively, he was away from the poll scene of CPI, till the party named him as a star campaigner. Left parties are contesting the upcoming elections with Mahagathbandhan-led by RJD. 

With 12 days left for the elections, Kanhaiya Kumar has opined that the ruling coalition is setting the agendas and the opposition is only reacting to it instead of coming out with their own issues. He lamented that the agendas which were relevant to the state 15 years back continue to dominate the present polls. Kanhaiya, while speaking to PTI, said that Opposition should set their own alternative agendas. 

When asked about Tejashwi Yadav - who is the CM face for Mahagathbandhan, "he is the leader of the largest constituent of the coalition so, it's natural that he will be the leader and there is no question about it." Notably, former JNUSU general secretary, Sandeep Saurav, has been fielded by CPI-ML, also a member of the grand alliance, from the Paliganj assembly seat.

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Seat-sharing formula 

Out of the other Mahagatbandhan seats, Congress, RJD, CPI(M-L), CPI and CPM shall field candidates from 70, 144, 19, 6 and 4 constituencies each. Contrary to the initial announcement, JMM has not been allocated any seats from RJD's quota. Earlier in the day, it was revealed that CPI(M-L) candidates will fight the election from Paliganj, Arrah, Agiaon, Tarari, Dumraon, Karakat, Arwal, Ghosi, Bhore, Ziradei, Darauli, Daraundi, Digha, Phulwari, Sikta, Balrampur, Aurai, Kalyanpur and Warisnagar. Vikash Mandal (Rupauli), Ramnaresh Pandey (Harlakhi), Suryakant Paswan (Bakhri), Ram Ratan Singh (Teghra), Abdhesh Kumar Ray (Bachhwara) and Ramnarayan Yadav (Jhanjharpur) have been named as the CPI candidates. For the CPM, Rajmangal Kushwaha, Satyendra Yadav Manjhi, Ajay Kumar and Rajendra Prasad Singh will contest from Pipra, Manjhi, Bibhutipur, and Matihani respectively. Bihar will vote in 3 phases - October 28, November 3, and November 7, with the results being declared on November 10.

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Other parties in poll-fray

This year's Bihar elections will witness the clash of as many as five alliances. The ruling JDU-BJP is contesting along with Mukesh Sahni's VIP and former CM Jitan Ram Manjhi's Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular), while LJP has decided to go solo. The Mahagathbandhan led by RJD has lost many key allies and is contesting with Congress and three left parties, with Lalu Yadav's son Tejashwi as CM face.

On 28 September, Pappu Yadav who is eyeing a comeback in politics of Bihar stitched an alliance of his party Jan Adhikar Party (JAP) with Chandrashekhar Azad's Azad Samaj Party', MK Faizi's Social Democratic Party and Bahujan Mukti Party. They named it the Progressive Democratic Alliance (PDA). On the other side, confident after his party's victory in byelections, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi has teamed up with Upendra Kushwaha-led RLSP, Mayawati's BSP, Devendra Yadav's SJDD, and SBSP as the 'Grand Democratic Secular Front' to contest the upcoming polls. 

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