The lok Janshakti Party (lJP) on Tuesday came out in the open with “discontent” over the seat-sharing formula adopted by the BJP for the NDA alliance partners for the Bihar Assembly polls.
“There is no smoke without fire,” Chirag Paswan, lJP Parliamentary Board chairman and son of party president Ram Vilas Paswan, said. Chirag had a long midnight meeting with BJP chief Amit Shah on Monday to iron out the differences. Chirag, however, made it clear that lJP will continue in the NDA, which will remain “intact”.
Shah had announced a seat sharing formula for Bihar assembly elections under which the alliance spearhead will contest 160 of the state’s 243 seats, lJP 40, RlSP 23 and HAM 20. “There was no anger but discontent as there was a difference between the seat-sharing formula we were told about earlier and what was announced. So we were taken aback. We were not angry but definitely there were concerns in the party. We were shocked. There is no smoke without fire,” Chirag said.
Though he did not give details of what transpired at his meeting with Shah, Chirag said that on behalf of his party he apprised the BJP chief of their concerns who committed for a solution. Describing HAM and RlSP as “family”, he said, “There is no reason--number of seats or anything else--due to which lJP would part ways with the BJP. There is no question of any dispute with Manjhi ji as his party cannot be given seats under any formula as he had neither contested lok Sabha nor state Assembly polls in past.”