Ahead of Bihar polls, Nitish, Nadda hold seat-sharing talks

Vibha Sharma

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Tribune News Service

New Delhi, September 12

BJP national president JP Nadda, who is in Bihar in connection with the party’s election  programme, on Saturday met Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to resolve the seat-sharing differences among the NDA allies ahead of the forthcoming elections to the 243-member Assembly.

Sources said the two allies decided to reach an agreement “at the earliest” in order to put at rest all speculations regarding the alliance, especially arising out of open show of acrimony between the JDU and the LJP.

Nitish Kumar is believed to have expressed unhappiness over statements made by LJP president Chirag Paswan and stressed on early resolution so that there is no ambiguity in the minds of the voters.

Much of the issue is related to the number of seats the allies will contest in the forthcoming elections.

Aiming to increase the political relevance of his party, Chirag Paswan is demanding a share corresponding with the number of Lok Sabha seats the LJP contested in the 2019, in other words at least 42 seats in the 243-member Assembly.

While the LJP contested six seats in the last general elections, senior leader Ram Vilas Paswan was also accommodated in the Rajya Sabha.

Meanwhile,  six sitting MLAs from the RJD have joined the JDU and “more are expected” as per sources. Therefore, Nitish Kumar too is pressing for a “minimum 120 seats”.

Apart from accommodating the LJP, which is threatening to contest against the JDU, the NDA also has to look after the interests of Jitan Ram Manji-led HAM(S) which joined the alliance recently.

Sources say Manjhi is being “persuaded to not contest the Assembly elections” in which case he may be accommodated in the Rajya Sabha.

Nadda was accompanied by the party’s state election in-charge Bhupendra Yadav, state president Sanjay Jaiswal and Deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi.

JDU Lok Sabha MP Rajiv Ranjan Singh was also present at the talks where Nitish Kumar is believed to have voiced annoyance over Chirag Paswan’s utterances and the damage they were doing to the image of the alliance.

The BJP leadership is believed to have assured Nitish Kumar that it will intervene to iron out differences between his party and the LJP.

Nadda, who is in Bihar for a two-day tour, also offered prayers at the famous Patan Devi temple after which the Bihar capital is named.

He interacted with women farmers and litchi cultivators at a village named after legendary “Kisan Chachi” whose efforts at promoting entrepreneurship among rural women earned her a Padmashri.

He also addressed ‘makhana’ and fish producers at Darbhanga and inugurated the ‘Atmanirbhar Bihar Abhiyan’ at the party’s office in Patna.