New Delhi: With the RJD officially releasing its list of candidates, the contours of the seat-sharing arrangement among all major constituents in Bihar have been drawn. Barring a few constituencies that may see a ‘friendly contest’, Lalu Yadav's party is set to contest the maximum number of seats in the November elections.

The brinkmanship that marred negotiations in the I.N.D.I.A bloc is symptomatic of electoral politics in a fragmented polity, where allies jostle and compete to maximise their numbers, within the alliance, and subsequently in the House. The more you contest, the more you are likely to win.

But that's easier said than done. A party's final tally in an election does not depend solely on the number of candidates who entered the fray under its symbol. What also matters is t

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