New Delhi: Ahead of the Bihar assembly elections scheduled for later this year, the Congress and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) held a meeting in Delhi on Tuesday (April 15). The meeting comes two days ahead of a meeting in Patna in which all the Mahagathbandhan partners, including the Congress, RJD and Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation (CPI(ML)) will hold talks on seat-sharing arrangements.Tuesday’s meeting was attended by former Bihar deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav, the RJD’s Rajya Sabha MPs Manoj Kumar Jha and Sanjay Yadav, as well as Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi.The Congress’s Bihar in-charge Krishna Allavaru and state unit president Rajesh Kumar were also present at the meeting.Following the meeting, Yadav told reporters that the talks were “positive”, but did not disclose any details on whether seat-sharing arrangements were discussed.“Talks were positive and we will meet with all alliance partners on April 17 in Patna. We are ready and committed to take Bihar on the path of progress. Despite the government that has been there for 20 years in Bihar and Prime Minister Modi being at the helm for 11 years, Bihar is the most economically backward, has the lowest per capita income, the least farmers’ income and the highest migration,” he said.“We all want to fight the election on issues. We are in the opposition; it is our responsibility to highlight the limitations of the government to the public.”Yadav’s focus on Bihar’s development comes amid the BJP and the Janata Dal (United)’s renewed efforts to highlight “jungle raj” under Lalu Prasad Yadav.Asked whether he would be portrayed as the chief ministerial face, Yadav said that it is certain that the NDA will not form the government and alleged that Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar has been “hijacked”.“I don’t why you all are worried about the CM face. We will decide. You need not be worried about this. Nitish Kumar has been hijacked. Amit Shah has said that the elections will be fought under Nitish Kumar’s leadership, but he did not say that he will be the chief minister after the elections. We leave it to the public, but it is certain that there won’t be an NDA [National Democratic Alliance] government in Bihar,” he said.In a statement on X, Kharge said that in the upcoming elections Bihar would be freed from the BJP’s “opportunistic alliance”.“In the coming elections, we will give the people of Bihar a strong, positive, just and welfare-oriented option. Bihar will be freed from the BJP and its opportunistic alliance. Youth, farmers-labourers, women, backward, extremely backward and people of all other sections of the society want the Mahagathbandhan government,” he wrote.In the 2020 assembly elections, the Congress contested 70 seats and won 19, while the RJD won 75 of the 144 seats it contested. The CPI(ML) won 12 of the 19 seats it contested.In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the RJD won four seats, the Congress three and the CPI(ML) two respectively.In a bid to start its election campaign early in Bihar, the Congress has also held the “Palayan Roko, Naukri Do [Stop Migration, Give Jobs] Yatra” in the state.Last week Gandhi joined the yatra in Patna. The visit was his third in three months.Following the meeting, the Congress’s Allavaru said that Tuesday’s meeting was only the beginning and that a strategy will be formed after meeting all alliance partners on Thursday.“Today’s meeting was only the beginning. We will move forward in the Patna meeting by meeting all the parties, creating a consensus and with a strong strategy,” he said.