Urmila Matondkar has come a long way from her "Rangeela" days to be named the Congress candidate from Mumbai (North), a day after she joined the Grand Old Party.

"I am here to stay - even after the elections," she grandly declared on Thursday, never mind if she faces a formidable rival in incumbent BJP MP Gopal Shetty.

Two thousand km away, Basirhat Nusrat Jahan (Trinamool Congress) has put her best foot forward since the first day of her campaign last week, mingling with party workers, interacting with her fans and even singing popular numbers from her movies for them.

The 28-year-old-actress of "Zulfiqar" fame is pitted against seasoned politicians like BJP's Sayantan Basu and CPI's Pallab Sengupta and Congress contender Qazi Abdur Rahim.

After a prolonged tug-of-war among its partners, the 'mahagathbandhan' (Grand Alliance) in Bihar finally allocated all of the 40 Lok Sabha seats Friday, announcing candidature of RJD leaders Misa Bharti and Abdul Bari Siddiqui from Pataliputra and Darbhanga respectively, besides Congress' Meira Kumar from Sasaram.

As per the seat-sharing formula, the RJD has got 20 seats, out of which it is giving up one for CPI(ML), the Congress has nine, followed by five for Upendra Kushwaha's RLSP and three each for Jitan Ram Manjhi's HAM and Mukesh Sahni's VIP.

Arun Giri, election analyst and Prabhakar Kumar, bureau chief, CNN- News18, Bihar discuss the election battle in Maharashtra, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.

(With inputs from IANS)

First Published:Mar 29, 2019 10:27 PM IST