NEW DELHI/LUCKNOW, March 19 : A day after being dealt a humiliating blow in Bihar by its UPA partners, the Congress today hit back, declaring that it has finalised a seat-sharing agreement for the Lok Sabha polls with the JMM in Jharkhand, splitting 12 of the state’s 14 seats between themselves while leaving only two for Mr Lalu Prasad’s RJD.

With this development, the disarray in the UPA, especially in Bihar and Jharkhand seems to be complete, even as the proposed Congress-SP alliance has come a cropper in Uttar Pradesh.

The AICC leader in charge of Jharkhand affairs, Mr K Keshava Rao, announced today that the Congress had sealed the Jharkhand seat-sharing pact with the JMM under which the Congress will contest from 7 seats while the JMM will field its nominees from 5 seats. “We have kept two remaining seats open, if the RJD wants to stake its claims on these two seats we will have no problems,” said Mr Rao. He denied the suggestion that the Congress has sought to give in Jharkhand a “tit for tat” reply to Mr Prasad’s Bihar snub.

SP upsets Cong in Kanpur

The SP today added insult to Congress’ injury yet again when it decided to field a candidate for the Kanpur seat against sitting Congress MP and Union minister of state for home, Mr Sri Prakash Jaiswal.

Earlier, the SP had said it would not contest the seat in deference to Mr Jaiswal. Businessman Mr Surendra Mohan Aggrawal is the party candidate for the constituency, SP chief Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav said today.