Patna, Aug. 8: The Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee (BPCC) today said the Congress would contest all 243 seats if they do not get respectable seats in the grand alliance.

BPCC president Ashok Choudhary made this announcement at a time , when one of its partners and chief minister Nitish Kumar is in Delhi, where he is scheduled to meet Congress president Sonia Gandhi and JDU president Sharad Yadav.

"The Congress should get respectable number of seats in the alliance this Assembly elections based on our performance in 2009, 2010 and 2014. The party should get around 50 seats, which we are entitled to," said Choudhary.

The Congress helped Nitish when he was in need to save the government after breaking up with the BJP and also during the Jitan Ram Manjhi episode. Taking these into consideration, the party expects at least 50 seats.

Sources said party vice-president Rahul Gandhi has clarified that there shall be a candidate in every district to boost the morale of party workers.

Asked about the party's alternative strategy, Choudhary said: "If we do not get seats, then options are open to us, including contesting all the 243 seats. We would intimate the high command on this as well."

As the elections inch closer, all parties wants announcement of seat-sharing, which would help them to carry forward their work at the ground-level. Last month, JDU national president Sharad Yadav was in Patna and held several rounds of talks with Lalu and Nitish over the seat-sharing issue though no conclusion was reached.

After Sharad's departure, Nitish held a few rounds of meeting with Lalu and on August 6, Nitish again visited 10 Circular Road to meet the RJD chief after 10pm for an hour.

A senior JDU leader said: "Both Lalu and Nitish held several rounds of parleys on seat-sharing but on no occasion did the Congress take part in those. That's why the Congress is claiming so many seats to create pressure politics. However, as far seat-sharing is concerned, the Congress would not get more than 30-35 seats because the NCP and the CPI have to be adjusted. In such a scenario, the RJD and the JDU would contest on 100 seats each and the rest would be distributed among the ally parties."

As of now, the JDU has 111 MLAs compared to the 141 seats it had contested in the 2010 Assembly elections. Similarly, the RJD has 24 MLAs and the Congress has five.

One should not be amazed if the Congress contest on all 243 seats because in 2010, it did contest on all seats but won four.

No leader either from the RJD or the JDU commented on this issue.