NDA to announce Bihar Assembly seat-sharing formula soon

The NDA is likely to announce the seat-sharing arrangement for the Bihar Assembly polls soon, after the BJP on Wednesday held talks with allies Lok Janshakti Party (LJP), Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP) and Hindustan Awam Morcha (HAM) here.

Former chief minister and HAM founder Jitan Ram Manjhi went into a huddle with Union minister and BJP’s state election in-charge Anant Kumar on Wednesday morning. 

Following Manjhi was RLSP’s general secretary Shivraj Singh and later in the evening LJP leader and Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan’s son Chirag.

Emerging out of the meeting, Chirag said the seat distribution will be finalised in two to three days. “Discussions were based on our strategies,” he said. It is learnt that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has asked RLSP leader Upendra Kushwaha to accept the seat quota formula set by BJP chief Amit Shah. Kushwaha is understood to have got the advice when he met Modi on Tuesday for some ministerial work.

BJP sources said the party intends to fight in about 160 seats and will leave the remaining 83 seats for the three partners. This proposition is not acceptable to the allies with Kushwaha and Manjhi pushing for more seats.

Figures so far
The LJP wants about 45 seats, arguing that their quota should be commensurate with their performance in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls where the party won 6 of the 7 constituencies where it contested.

On an average, there are 6 Assembly segments in a Lok Sabha constituency.
Similarly, RLSP, which has three Lok Sabha MPs, is asking for more than 35 seats.
The BJP is believed to be giving 15 seats to HAM, which is seeking a bigger slice on the grounds that it has 12 sitting MLAs, while the others have none.

Meanwhile, the BJP top brass has again cautioned NDA leaders against speaking in public about their internal differences. 

Manjhi, who had on Tuesday questioned Paswan's Dalit leader status and accused him of peddling family-centric politics, said that the Union minister was like an “elder brother” and their differences were like those between any brothers.