Jr Paswan major challenge for senior NDA allies; Chirag will meet Amit Shah on Sept 14 in Delhi after which clarity will emerge on Bihar seat-sharing formula
The BJP and the Janata Dal(U) started preliminary talks on the sharing of seats for the forthcoming Assembly polls during a two-hour meeting between BJP president JP Nadda and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in Patna on Saturday. But more than the number of seats, the issue of dealing with LJP chief Chirag Paswan has emerged a major challenge for the alliance.
Chirag Paswan will meet Home Minister Amit Shah on September 14 in Delhi after which more clarity will emerge on the seat-sharing talks. Chirag has held several rounds of talks with Nadda in Delhi.
Nadda is reported to have assured Nitish Kumar that the BJP will try to iron out his differences with Chirag Paswan, who has often targeted the Bihar Chief Minister during the last few months.
Nadda is also reported to have advised the LJP president not to attack the Bihar Government and agree to contest a realistic number of seats.
Sources said that the BJP and the JD(U) may agree to contest 123 and 120 seats each. The strength of the State Assembly is 243.
The BJP will allot seats to the LJP out of its quota and JD(U) will meet the demand of former Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi from its share of 120 seats. If this agreement holds, the LJP may be asked to contest 23 seats since the BJP will not contest less than 100 seats, sources said.
In Delhi, Chirag said he will go with the BJP choice of the Chief Minister and he has no problem with the name of Nitish Kumar as the face of the NDA.
“I am okay with any Tom, Dick or Harry chosen by the BJP,” a TV channel quoted the 37-year-old leader.
However, it was not clear how will the LJP react if offered 23 seats to contest. The party has been pressing for allotment of at least 43 seats. In 2015 Assembly polls when the JD(U) was not part of the NDA the LJP had contested 42 Assembly seats.
The BJP chief accompanied by party colleagues like Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi, national general secretary and State in-charge Bhupendra Yadav and State president Sanjay Jaiswal, called on Nitish at his official residence amid a growing row between NDA partners.
The NDA in Bihar consists of the JD(U), the BJP, the LJP and Jitan Ram Manjhi’s Hindustan Awam Morcha (HAM).
In the middle of the visible fissures in the alliance, Union Minister for Home and former Bihar BJP president Nityanand Rai has claimed that the NDA would win 220 Assembly seats in the October-November slated polls.
Rai said that developmental works carried out across the country under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the help given to the underprivileged population during the coronavirus crisis phase, as well as the beginning of Ram temple construction in Ayodhya, will be the important issues in the upcoming elections in the State.
“NDA will form Government in Bihar under the leadership of Nitish Kumarji after winning 220 seats in the upcoming State Assembly elections,” Rai told newspersons in Patna BJP office after Nadda discussed on Friday campaign strategy with party leaders in the election management committee meeting.
“The pledge is to make an atmanirbhar Bihar so that it can contribute to the goal of atmanirbhar Bharat. Industries will be set up here, there is immense scope of setting up agriculture-based industries here. Food processing, fish farming, among others can be started here,” he said.
Nadda on Saturday visited Muzaffarpur as part of BJP’s ‘atmnirbhar’ campaign and met women farmers who have evolved newer ways of self-reliance in agriculture and fishing production.