Bihar leader Pappu Yadav joins Congress ahead of Lok Sabha polls

Ahead of the crucial Lok Sabha elections, Bihar leader Pappu Yadav merged his Jan Adhikar Party with the Congress and formally joined the party at the AICC headquarters in New Delhi. Formerly with the RJD, Pappu Yadav was Lok Sabha MP from Madhepura from 2014 to 2019. He founded the Jan Adhikar Party (Loktantrik) in May 2015.

After joining the Congress, Pappu Yadav praised Rahul Gandhi for his yatra. "Rahul Gandhi has struggled the most in this world, especially at a time when digital media has taken over most of the hard work, he walked for more than 4000 km in extreme temperatures. The respect which I have received and the faith put in me and my party by Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi are enough to keep me going. Rahul Gandhi has awakened the consciousness of 130 crore people of India."

In the 2019 elections, Yadav contested as JAP candidate from Madhepura but lost badly. He garnered just 97,631 votes (8%), while winning candidate Dinesh Chandra Yadav of JDU secured over 6 lakh votes. RJD's Sharad Yadav got over 3 lakh votes.

Pappu Yadav's party contested two assembly elections, but failed to get any seat each time.

Meanwhile, RJD's Manoj Jha today said seat sharing in Bihar will be finalised in a day or two. After meeting Congress General Secretary Mukul Wasnik, Jha said they have agreed on seat sharing to a great extent. "Agreement has been built to a great extent, things are on track, in a couple of days, everything will be cleared," he told reporters.

Asked about the details of the number of seats to be fought by the INDIA bloc partners, Jha said, "You are talking about numbers, we are concerned about winnability. A good formula will emerge, and everything will be decided." "A comprehensive alliance is shaping up in public interest, against personality-centric politics, and to provide an alternative to that," he said.

Bihar has 40 Lok Sabha seats.

Asked about Pashupati Kumar Paras, who resigned from the Union Cabinet on Tuesday after his party was not given a single seat in the NDA seat-sharing deal in Bihar, Jha said it was a practice for the BJP to "use and throw" alliance partners.

(With inputs from PTI)