Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge holds meeting with Bihar leaders in Delhi

New Delhi: Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge and party leader Rahul Gandhi held a meeting with Bihar Congress leaders here on Tuesday to discuss the strategy for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

Party General Secretary KC Venugopal was also present in the meeting. Several leaders from the state attended the meeting.

Bihar Congress chief Akhilesh Prasad Singh and newly appointed state in-charge Mohan Prakash, along with leaders like Ranjeet Ranjan, and Shakeel Ahmed, were among those present in the meeting.

After the meeting with Bihar Congress leaders, party chief Kharge took to X, and said that every worker of his party is ready to reach out to the people and live up to the aspirations of the people of Bihar for the progress, prosperity and peace of the state.

"The Grand Alliance government in Bihar is working firmly as per the expectations of the people of Bihar. We are committed to social justice. For the progress, prosperity and peace of Bihar, every Congress worker is ready to reach out to the people and live up to the aspirations of the people of Bihar," he said.

Though the Congress-RJD-JDU-Left alliance is in power in the state, 17 of the 40 MPs in the state are from the BJP.

The opposition bloc INDIA has announced to contest the elections jointly. However, there is continuing suspense over a seat-sharing agreement between the partners in the opposition alliance.

Amid this suspense, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said on Tuesday that talks would be held with an 'open mind'.

Speaking to ANI on Monday, Ramesh, the Congress general secretary in charge of communications, said, "Khule mann aur band muh se hi hum seat sharing pe baat aage challenge (We will carry forward seat-sharing talks with an open mind and refraining from public statements)."

The Congress leader added that different states would pose different challenges with regard to advancing seat-sharing talks and the discussions would hence be held, taking all aspects into consideration.

"The seat-sharing talks are ongoing and will continue. We will do what needs to be done. There are different conditions and challenges in different states. We will be having discussions on seat sharing, keeping in mind the different (political) realities there," Ramesh said.

While the INDIA partners came together for their fourth meeting in the national capital recently, the potentially thorny issue of seat-sharing was left unaddressed. (ANI)