New Delhi: The seat-sharing exercise between the ruling ally Janata Dal (United) and the Bharatiya Janata Party is unlikely to be smooth before the Bihar Assembly elections. In a meeting with party chief JP Nadda on August 29, BJP MPs from Bihar urged the central leadership to share an equal share of JDU. Bihar Assembly has a total of 243 seats, while the state has 40 Lok Sabha seats.
In last year’s Lok Sabha elections, BJP and JD (U) contested 17-17 seats, while their third ally Lok Janshakti Party contested the remaining 6 seats.
A senior BJP leader said, “BJP contested 2014 Lok Sabha elections with 13 seats to win JD (U) in 2019 elections. However, things have changed to a great extent, and hence the BJP’s position in the state is fine. “
One of the MPs who attended the meeting said, “BJP also left its traditional seats like Siwan, Gaya, Gopalganj and Valmiki Nagar. If we are not able to contest elections in respectable seats once again, the morale of party workers and leaders will fall.”
Several MPs raised the issue in the meeting, and were told that a final decision would be taken by the party high command soon. The MPs have been asked to hold 60 panchayat meetings and submit a report to the central leadership on the overall mood and current status of the assembly constituencies.
Candidates can be announced soon
In order to resolve the issue of seat sharing in Bihar elections, Union Home Minister Amit Shah reached the residence of BJP National President JP Nadda. What was the conversation between the two leaders has not been known. However, sources say that there has been a discussion between the two BJP leaders about the LJP. Shah’s presence at the meeting indicates that the BJP has finalized its strategy before final round of talks with allies regarding seat sharing. If official sources are to be believed, an announcement will be made soon regarding the seat sharing and candidates will be announced on the first phase of polling seats on October 4 or 5.
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