Amidst the rift between the NDA partners BJP and LJP, Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan on Friday met Finance Minister Arun Jaitley for the second consecutive day to sort out their difference on a host of issue flagged by Paswan’s son, Chirag paswan, who heads the Parliamentary board of the LJP.
While Chirag said that talks were on and that issues like sharing of seats may be settled, BJP sources said that LJP may be offered six seats, as many as it had won in 2014, and the BJP and its another ally Janata Dal (United) will contest 17 seats each.
Another theory doing the rounds within the NDA is that Paswan may be pacified with five seats in Bihar and one in Uttar Pradesh. Sources in the BJP said a final arrangement on seats would be formalised after a meeting of the BJP and LJP leaders with Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who reached Delhi on Friday evening.
After the meeting with Jaitley, LJP Parliamentary Chirag expressed hopes that talks would move in the right direction. “Talks are going on. An announcement will be made at an appropriate time. We have put our points before the BJP leadership and the important thing is that we are being heard. Hope everything will be fine,” he told media.
His uncle, Ram Chandra Paswan, who also attended the meeting said that the LJP would remain part of National Democratic Alliance (NDA). “We are and will remain in the NDA. Seat sharing will be announced this week. We have stronghold in a specific area hence that has to be respected. We are a small party. We need adequate time for preparation. That’s why we wanted the issue to be resolved at the earliest,” Ram Chandra Paswan said briefing the media.
Shah had earlier announced that his party and the JD(U) will be contesting equal number of seats in the politically crucial state where the BJP-led NDA had won 31 seats in 2014.
The deployment of Jaitley, an old Bihar hand in the party with friendly relations with leaders of different parties, underscores the importance the BJP has attached to continuing its alliance with Paswan’s party, which enjoys strong influence among Dalits.
Top BJP leaders, including Amit Shah and Jaitley, had held an hour-long meeting with Ram Vilas Paswan and his son on Thursday to resolved their differences. .
Expressing his discomfort within the ruling alliance Chirag Paswan had earlier written a letter to Jaitley asking him to explain what benefits demonetisation brought to the country. He had also tweeted that a delay in seat-sharing announcement may harm the ruling alliance and simultaneously praised Congress chief Rahul Gandhi over his feat winning three Hindi heartland States from BJP.
In the last Lok Sabha polls, the BJP had contested from 30 seats and won 22, while the LJP won six seats and the Rashtriya Lok Samta Party (RLSP), which is now a part of mahagathbandhan (grand alliance) in Bihar, bagged three. In 2014, the JD(U) had contested on its own and could win only two seats.