Ahead of the Lok Sabha elections,the Bihar unit of Congress has started flexing its muscles to get at least a dozen seats from its allies in the post-poll alliance taking shape in the state. Leaders of the state Congress,including CLP leader Ashok Ram and PCC President Anil Sharma,met the AICC Secretary in-charge of the state Iqbal Singh to impress on him the need to get a better deal for the party in the state. In the last Lok Sabha polls,the Congress,RJD and the LJP had fought together in Bihar but the Congress managed to get only four seats out of 40 in the seat-sharing arrangement,in which it won three securing only 4.5 per cent of total votes polled. The LJP managed to bag eight in the seat-sharing,double that of Congress,but won only four. RJD,the big brother of the alliance in the state,had the maximum of 26 seats with win in 22 and a vote percentage of 30.7. In the 2004 elections,NCP and the Left had managed one seat each,which they both lost. The NDA,comprising of the BJP and JD(U) had won 11 seats. The Congress apart from the four seats which they got last time,will also field Ram Swarup Ram from Nalanda. Ram had won the 2004 polls on a JD(U) ticket but supported Congress during the July 22 trust vote.
