An alliance between the BJP and the lok Janshakti Party (lJP) looks imminent. Senior BJP leader and former Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar Sushil Kumar Modi reached Delhi on Monday and held talks with central party leaders on the seat sharing formula that could be worked out between the BJP and lJP leader Ram Vilas Paswan.
According to sources, bargaining for seats is underway with Paswan staking claim on eight to nine seats and the BJP willing to part with only seven seats out of the total 40 lok Sabha seats in Bihar.
The seats claimed by lJP include Khagaria, Munger, Jamui, Hajipur, Ara, Samastipur and Darbhanga, Sources said Ara in North-West Bihar is a bone of contention as the BJP has already committed it to former Union Home Secretary Raj Kumar Singh. If the BJP retains Ara, it could give Vaishali to lJP. However, when asked by newspersons about the BJP-lJP lok Sabha poll tie up in Bihar, Rajnath Singh avoided a categorical response. “I am not aware... If some announcement has to be made, you will be told,” he said
Asked if the BJP was close to sealing a deal with lJP, he retorted: “There is no truth in such reports”. On discussions between the two sides, BJP President said discussions keep taking place among different parties. Singh made these comments on the sidelines of an event here after Dalit leader Udit Raj joined the BJP on Monday.
A section of the Central BJP leadership was “cautious” and counseled adopting a “wait and watch” approach on Paswan’s response. One of the top leaders of the party wondered whether the lJP leader was not engaging in “pressure tactics” to force the Congress to accede to his demands for “more seats” in Bihar.
Speaking out against an alliance with Paswan, senior Bihar BJP leader Ashwani Choubey said such a tie-up would be “suicidal” for the party.
“Paswan is an opportunist...any tie up with him will be suicidal for the BJP. When the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Government had fallen by one vote he did not extend support to the NDA Government,” Choubey told newspersons at Patna Airport on way to Delhi. Meanwhile, sources said Paswan has gone “incommunicado” for the Congress and was avoiding the party with which he was supposed to team up in Bihar for the 2014 lok Sabha polls together with lalu Prasad of the RJD.
Giving positive hints about the progress of the talks with the BJP, Paswan’s son Chirag Paswan sounded charitable towards the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi. “If the court has given its verdict and they say he (Modi) is clean, then I do not think it is an issue to talk about now,” Chirag Paswan told newspersons when asked about the 2002 Gujarat riots.
Ram Vilas Paswan was the first Minister to quit the NDA Government over the post-Godhra riots and claimed that joining the NDA was “a serious mistake.” His son’s comments are now indicative of the direction the talks between the BJP and the lJP as he heads the Parliamentary Board of the lJP.
Quizzed on the lJP trying to have a poll-alliance with the BJP after a break-up with the Congress and the RJD, Paswan said: “Yes I will agree to the fact that there has been a distrust in the party leaders because there is no clarity over alliance (with Congress and RJD). That’s why very soon, we can have Parliamentary Board meeting in which we are going to decide what our future strategy is going to be.” Party Secretary General Abdul Khalik, however, insisted: “It is not yet over. Talks are going on.” Asked whether lJP’s talks are continuing with BJP for alliance in Bihar, he merely said, “I am not involved in that.”
“The party is feeling suffocated and cornered because negotiations (with Congress and RJD) in last three months have not yielded the desired result. lJP is getting an impression that it is not wanted in the alliance,” he hastened to add. Paswan has been constantly shifting and shuffling his political moves. A few days ago, Paswan had lauded Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and claimed that there were “two views” within his party with some favouring an alliance with the RJD and others with the JD(U).
In 2009, when the lJP and RJD contested lok Sabha poll minus Congress, lJP failed to open its account and Paswan himself lost from his home turf Hajipur, RJD won only four seats and Congress two. This time Paswan and lalu Prasad were inclined to align with the Congress but demands for more seats from lJP and unwillingness from RJD to part with more seats undid the dialogue process with Paswan now trying to seal “a better deal” with an upbeat BJP, projected by opinion polls as a party set to form a Government at the Centre.