Congress MP K.C. Venugopal with other party leaders during CEC meeting for Bihar at Indira Bhawan on October 8, 2025. Photo: AICC via PTI
The Congress party’s Central Election Committee (CEC) met on Wednesday (October 8, 2025) and is learnt to have cleared 25 candidates for the upcoming Bihar Assembly elections in seats that are traditional Congress strongholds.
Though seat-sharing talks are still on with the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), the Congress is expected to contest around 55 to 60 seats out of the 243 Assembly seats as part of the Opposition alliance, called the Mahagathbandhan in Bihar.
Top leaders, including Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi, party chief Mallikarjun Kharge, and Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, joined the CEC deliberations virtually. AICC general secretary (organisation) K.C. Venugopal and party treasurer Ajay Maken were among the leaders who attended the meeting held at Indira Bhawan, the party’s new headquarters.
Congress strongholds
Bihar Congress chief Rajesh Ram said the senior party functionaries patiently heard the leaders from the State, adding that the seats discussed during the meeting are those which have already been cleared by the alliance partners and have been strongholds of the Congress.
“At the CEC meeting, we said those seats which are traditionally held by the Congress would remain with us…for which candidates have also been decided after deliberations,” the Bihar Congress chief said.
“But we will declare the names of candidates only after discussion with our alliance partners and also with our state leaders,” Mr. Ram said, adding that the number of seats each partner will contest would be announced jointly.
“We are happy with the seats discussed today at the CEC meeting… All top leaders agreed to our suggestions and candidates proposed by State leaders,” he said.
‘No seat-sharing fight’
The Bihar Congress chief insisted that there is no fight for seats among the Mahagathbandhan partners. “We will jointly decide the candidates and announce them at a press conference, after clarity amongst all our partners,” he said.
The Congress leader in the Bihar Assembly Shakeel Ahmed said that the CEC has granted its approval for candidate names in seats which are Congress strongholds. “One round of discussions with alliance partners remains and after that we would decide on the seats that each one is contesting,” Mr. Ahmed said in response to questions on seat-sharing.
CEC member and Kishanganj MP Mohammed Jawaid later confirmed that the party has cleared the names of 25 candidates for the upcoming polls.
On Thursday (October 9, 2025), senior Congress leaders such as Ashok Gehlot, Bhupesh Baghel, and Jairam Ramesh are likely to release a chargesheet in Patna against the Nitish Kumar-led NDA government in the State.
Published – October 08, 2025 10:04 pm IST