Post seat sharing, all does not seem to be going smooth in the NDA. While the seat sharing was an intricate issue with top leadership of the BJP sweated it out to find out an amicable solution, the alliance partners are once again feeling uneasy over BJP’s unilateral decision to declare list of its 43 candidates.
The Rashtriya lok Samata Party (RlSP) and lok Janashakti Party (lJP) are unhappy that before talks on selection of seats the BJP announced its candidates for 43 constituencies. The two allies had eyes on some of these seats.
RlSP spokesman Fazal Imam Malik said it was not fair on the part of the BJP to announce its candidates much before discussion on the identification of the seats to be given to the allies. “The BJP failed to observe alliance dharma,” reacted another spokesman Rajesh Yadav.
Most of the allies of the NDA are not satisfied with the seat sharing and airing complain. lJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan publicly said his party did not have respectable number of seats. “Nobody can go to the battle field half heartedly,” he commented. The lJP has got 40 seats. Chirag Paswan also said lJP got less seats in comparison to RlSP and Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM). “We have been given some assurance by the BJP leadership which was not honoured. We have aired our grievances before BJP president Amit Shah who noted them,” he said.
The lJP suffered a set back when its Vaishali MP Rama Singh resigned from all posts in the party including national general secretary, chief whip, Parliamentary board membership and in-charge of Rajasthan. Singh was reportedly sulking for about one year after tiff with Chirag Paswan and expressed unhappiness over seat sharing formula. HAM also suffered a jolt when senior and former Union Minister Devendra Prasad Yadav quit the party along with his supporters. He too was not satisfied with seat sharing under which HAM got 20 seats.
Chirag’s uneasiness is also over the allocation of seats falling under his Jamui lok Sabha constituency. At least three assembly seats are likely to go the HAM including the two to senior HAM leader Narendra Singh’s sons Ajay Singh and Sumit Singh, both sitting MlAs. Ajay is likely to contest polls on BJP ticket. The BJP has already announced its candidates on some seats which had been demanded by the HAM including Nabinagar where Jitan Ram Manjhi wanted to field lovely Anand but the BJP has fielded former State president Gopal Narayan Singh. In its first list the BJP has denied ticket to five sitting MlAs. With this development there is speculation of party hopping. At least one of them Aman Paswan, sitting MlA from Peerpainti, on Wednesday called on Nitish Kumar amid reports that he would join the JD(U).