Congress Allots Symbols To Candidates Amid Deadlock On Seat Sharing Within INDIA Bloc
The party’s response came after it was stuck in a hard bargain with RJD over seat-sharing day ahead of last date for phase 1 nominations.
Published : October 16, 2025 at 2:48 PM IST
New Delhi: The Congress has started allotting party symbols to at least 22 candidates in Bihar amid lack of clarity on seat-sharing within the INDIA bloc.
The seat-sharing formula of the bloc was expected to be announced on October 16 following which the Congress would have made its first list public. However, that did not happen as Congress managers were still locked in tough seat-sharing negotiations with the RJD, the bigger party in the alliance.
The two sides had been trying to work out the seat-sharing formula over the last few days but a few glitches still remained in the process, said insiders. The Congress move to allot party symbols to select candidates came a day ahead of October 17, the last date for filing of nominations for the phase 1 polling that will take place on November 6.
RJD had allotted symbols to several of its candidates and party leader Tejaswi Yadav had filed his nomination from Raghopur on Wednesday. Amid the seat-sharing glitches, the Congress high command had given a go ahead to around 51 candidates of the 61 the grand old party plans to contest.
According to Congress insiders, senior leaders including AICC in charge of Bihar Krishna Allavaru, state unit chief Rajesh Kumar Ram and leader of legislative party Shakeel Ahmed Khan held detailed discussions with the RJD leadership till late on Wednesday night to resolve the names on around 10 difficult seats that neither party was prepared to give up.
The insiders further said during the talks, the RJD leaders suggested the Congress give more seats for ally Mukesh Sahani’s vip but the grand old party managers told them clearly that the big regional party will have to share the seats from its own quota.
The Congress managers pointed out that they had already given up 10 seats for the sake of the alliance and had come down to 61 seats from the 70 seats the grand old party had contested in 2020 state elections.
The Congress move indicated it was all for the alliance this time but was not ready to give up its strong seats where its local leaders had been preparing ground over the last few months. Also, the grand old party was prepared for friendly fights on some seats, the party insiders said.
“The INDIA bloc will form the next government in Bihar. I will campaign for the alliance candidates to ensure their win,” Congress Lok Sabha member Mohammad Jawed told ETV Bharat.
According to Congress insiders, the party allotted symbols to Rajesh Kumar Ram from Kutumba, Santosh Mishra from Kargahar, Amit Giri from Nautan, Kaushalendra Kumar from Nalanda, Shiv Kumar Garib Das from Bachhwara, Pratima Das from Rajapakar, Anand Shankar Singh from Aurangabad, Jitendra Singh from Amarpur, Amit Bhushan from Begusarai, Lalan Kumar from Sultanganj, Shashi Shekhar Singh from Wazirganj, BK Ravi from Rosra, Gappu Rai from Govindganj, Amresh Kumar Anish from Lakhisarai, Omprakash Garg from Gopalganj Sadar, Bijendra Chaudhary from Muzaffarpur and Trishuldhari Singh from Barbigha among others.
“I extend my best wishes to all the candidates. Let us all come together to end the dark era of misgovernance in Bihar by forming the INDIA alliance government. We will realise the hopes and aspirations of 14 crore Biharis,” Rajesh Ram said.
Congress leaders Sanjeev Singh from Vaishali and Amit Kumar Tunna from Riga had filed their nomination on October 15 while the remaining ones will file their nominations either on October 16 or 17.
However, the symbol allotment and delay in ticket distribution has angered a section of party workers who staged protests in capital patna. Some local leaders protested and engaged in a scuffle at the airport over a ticket given to Anil Sharma from Bikram seat when the senior leaders reached from Delhi.
The Lok Sabha MP played down the dissent saying it was expected as there were many claimants on a seat. “The short-listing was done by factoring in feedback from the ground level. There will always be some dissatisfaction among a section of workers over ticket distribution as there were many seekers on a given seat,” said Jawed.
Former union minister Shakeel Ahmed dubbed the seat-sharing delay as usual hiccups. “These things happen before elections but the INDIA bloc is together. The ruling NDA actually faces severe anti-incumbency and has reasons to worry,” Ahmed told ETV Bharat.
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