What’s cooking? All eyes on Shah-Nitish dinner meet

With his re-entry into the Grand Alliance looking almost impossible, JD(U) chief and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar will have a close interaction with BJP president Amit Shah twice on Thursday.

On July 12, when the BJP chief arrives in Patna, he will have a breakfast meeting with Nitish at the state guest house.

Later, in the evening, Nitish will host a dinner for Shah at his official residence.

The tete-a-tete is being perceived as a rare occasion when Nitish will be hosting any visiting BJP chief twice in a day.

Though no leader worth his salt was ready to spell out the exact agenda of their meeting given the gag order (issued to BJP and JD(U) spokespersons on Tuesday), the meeting between the two party presidents is likely to thrash out contentious issues like seat-sharing for the Lok Sabha polls.

The JD(U) national executive meet has already authorised Nitish to take a call on the poll-pact, but at the same time it has been made clear to the BJP that the JD(U) would not like to be seen as a junior partner in the state which Nitish has been ruling since 2005.

This essentially means that Nitish will drive a hard bargain for a fair amount of Lok Sabha seats on the basis of votes polled in the 2015 Assembly elections where the JD (U) won 71 while the BJP won 53 Assembly constituencies.

The BJP, on the other hand, insists on the 2014 Lok Sabha results where it won 22 seats while its allies — the LJP and the RLSP — won six and three seats, respectively, in Bihar.

The BJP had earlier indicated that it was not willing to concede any of the 31 seats won by the NDA out of 40 constituencies during the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

The JD(U) expressed its displeasure over such "big brotherly" approach. It was precisely against this logjam that the JD(U) started exploring a return to the Grand Alliance, which, otherwise, was merely a ploy to drive a hard bargain with the BJP.

To break the "deadlock", the saffron camp has now reportedly suggested that after leaving six/seven seats for allies like Paswan and Kushwaha, the remaining seats could be distributed between the BJP and the JD(U) in the ratio of 50:50.

"We really don’t know the agenda of talks to be held between Amit Shah and Nitish Kumar. But it’s quite likely that ball will be set rolling to iron out differences over seat sharing in the ensuing Lok Sabha polls.

"Another issue likely to be taken up is unsavoury statements made by some Union Ministers which has vitiated the atmosphere in Bihar," a top NDA source told DH on Wednesday.