Nominations for the first phase of the assembly elections are scheduled to begin from October 10, so the final announcement of seat sharing by the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) will take two-three more days. After a meeting with coalition partners in Patna on Sunday, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Bihar election in -charge Dharmendra Pradhan and party’s national general secretary Vinod Tawde held a meeting with Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) leader and Union Minister Chirag Paswan in New Delhi on Tuesday afternoon and discussed their demands.
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LJP (RLD) leaders, familiar to the meeting, indicated that the party is aiming to contest 45 to 54 seats in Bihar elections, while the BJP is ready to give only 20-25 seats. Chirag Paswan has demanded that the party be allotted at least two assembly seats in each of the five Lok Sabha constituencies. BJP leaders assured Paswan that their demands would be discussed at the party level and soon they would be replied. Sources aware of the case said that there will be another meeting between Chirag Paswan and top BJP leaders in the coming days, in which the seat sharing can be finalized.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar presided over an important meeting of the JD (U) core team, in which he stressed that the party should contest more than 100 seats. Nitish Kumar, who is known to have a hot or cold relationship with Paswan, has allegedly asked the BJP to reduce the BJP’s demand for more stake in seat sharing. The second round of talks on the seat sharing in the NDA are expected to be at the end of this week, which can be announced soon after.
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Union Minister and BJP in -charge of BJP Dharmendra Pradhan has met prominent colleagues Jitin Ram Manjhi (Hum) and Upendra Kushwaha (RLSP) to agree on seat sharing. Manjhi is demanding 20 seats, while sources say that the BJP is trying to limit this number between seven and 10. Similarly, Kushwaha has sought 15 seats, while the BJP wants to keep his stake around seven or eight.