Samajwadi Party to contest five seats in Bihar: Lalu Prasad

Patna, Aug 29
RJD chief Lalu Prasad announced on Saturday that the Samajwadi Party (SP) of Mulayam Singh Yadav would contest from five seats in the upcoming Bihar assembly polls.

"We have given five seats to SP to contest in the polls. Now it is also a part of the grand alliance along with my own party RJD, JD-U and Congress," Lalu told at a press conference here.

Earlier, Lalu, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and senior Congress leader C.P. Joshi announced the seat-sharing formula among the parties in the grand alliance.

It was decided that the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Janata Dal-United (JD-U) will contest 100 seats each of total 243 Bihar assembly, and Congress 40 seats and three seats were left for the Nationalist Congress Party.

But later the NCP pulled out of the alliance, expressing its displeasure over less number of seats to it.

The Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance is yet to finalise its seat sharing despite allies's rising pressure for it.