New Delhi, Oct 18 Congress MP Tariq Anwar on Saturday criticised the ongoing confusion over seat-sharing in the Mahagathbandhan ahead of the Bihar Assembly elections, saying that the talks of "friendly fights" between alliance partners on several seats create a wrong impression among the public.
He said the confusion should have been cleared by now, especially since the nomination process for the first phase has already concluded.
Even as nominations for the first phase of the Bihar Assembly election ended on Friday, there has been no official announcement on seat-sharing among the Mahagathbandhan partners.
The Congress is the only party so far to have released its first list of 48 candidates, which it announced on Thursday night.
While other alliance partners, including the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP), have yet to declare their lists, several leaders -- including RJD's Tejashwi Yadav -- have already filed nominations.
The alliance partners continued distributing tickets until the last day of nominations for the first phase, resulting in both the Congress and the RJD fielding candidates against each other in at least seven constituencies. The leaders of the alliance have downplayed this by describing them as "friendly fights."
Speaking to IANS, Anwar said, "I think there is some communication gap, and there is still time for withdrawal. Till then, efforts will be made to bring everyone together. Some of these incidents have happened because of factionalism, but we have always contested elections together, and we hope to resolve these issues."
Expressing his disagreement with the idea of "friendly contests," the Congress MP said, "In my view, there is no scope for a 'friendly' contest. What's the point of an alliance then? If there is an alliance, it should mean alliance; otherwise, parties should contest separately. So while we may have friendly fights on eight seats and remain united on others, this creates a wrong perception among the public and sends the wrong message."
He also pointed out that the delay in finalising seat-sharing arrangements reflects poor coordination within the alliance.
"Everyone was aware that the elections were going to take place and that there were two alliances. Discussions should have taken place accordingly. Till now, seats should have been finalised and there should not have been any confusion in either of the alliances," he added.
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