“Negotiations for seat arrangements are in the final stages and a formal announcement will be made in August last week, when we get a fair idea of whether elections will be held in Bihar. There is no point in announcing the seat deal so soon,” senior coalition leader said above, citing the uncertainty of the Covid-19 epidemic.

Lalu Prasad’s Rashtriya Janata Dal is expected to contest 152 seats and Congress 91 seats when the 243-member state assembly elections are held, as the so-called Grand Alliance worked according to the seat-sharing formula,  parties leaders said.

The RJD, by its quota, will allocate some smaller parties to the coalition, the Mukesh Sahni-led  Vikashsheel Insaan Party and Communist Party of India Liberation said, a senior leader of the coalition requested anonymity.

Congress will have to accommodate the rest of its allies such as the Rashtriya Lok Samta Party,  Hindustani Awam Morcha, and the Communist Party of India with its quota of 91 seats.

In the 2015 assembly elections, when the Janata Dal was part of the alliance, the JD contested 110 seats, similar to the RJD. The Congress contested around 40 seats.

In the coalition, the RJD emerged as the single largest party with 81 seats, enabling the JD 70 and the Congress 27, the coalition to come to power.

As Nitish Kumar of JDU was the face of the Alliance, he became the Chief Minister; On July 26, 2017, Kumar left an alliance with the BJP to form the government. In the new format, RJD hopes to drop 30 from its quota for VIPs. The RJD is also keen that the CPI-ML should be part of the Liberation Coalition, and will provide some seats to the party by its quota.

CPI-ML Liberation state secretary Kunal said, “We will hand over the list of our seats to the RJD by next week. We are eager for an alliance … but it should be on honorable terms”.

Party leaders said they are expected to contest 42 seats and offer RLSP, HAM, and CPI to the remaining 49.

RJD state president Jagdanand Singh refused to comment on the seat-sharing formula, insisting that RJD, being the largest partner in the opposition alliance, was preparing to contest all 243 seats.

“Seat sharing will be done at the right time. As a senior partner, we have a responsibility to help our allies on the seats they will contest and we are doing so,” he said.

Among coalition partners, only HAM appears unhappy.