After weeks of hard bargaining, the BJP on Saturday appeared to have “almost” stitched together a seat-sharing deal with its three NDA allies for the Bihar Assembly polls by keeping 160-odd seats of the total 243 seats for itself and giving its partners the rest.
However, a formal announcement was postponed for Sunday as a last-minute demand on the seats, understood to have been made by former Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi’s Hindustan Awam Morcha (HAM), needed to be discussed again by the BJP and its allies.
Sources said, as per the arrangement while the BJP is likely to contest somewhere between 158 and 165 seats, Ram Vilas Paswan’s lJP 41-42 seats, Upendra Kushwaha’s RlSP 25-30 seats and HAM 15.
Over two days on Friday and Saturday, BJP president Amit Shah and Bihar election-in-charge Ananth Kumar managed to convince Paswan that parties should contest seats where they have a strong base. Paswan is also learnt to have agreed to scale down his demand to 40-odd seats, according to sources.
After Paswan, Union Minister Upendra Kushwaha of the Rashtriya lok Samata Party (RlSP) is also learnt to have
expressed “satisfaction” with a figure of 30 seats. But Manjhi is said to be seeking more than the 15 offered to him by the BJP.
Sources did not rule out the possibility of the arrangement witnessing “minor changes” before being announced. Five current MlAs, who are with Manjhi, will be contesting on BJP ticket, the sources pointed out.
Most of the BJP leaders from Bihar and those from allies were camping at the residence of Shah to work out a foolproof seat-sharing formula for the high-stake Bihar polls. Asked about the hurdles in a formal announcement of seat-sharing pact, Manjhi said after meeting Shah, “Kal subah mein ho jayega…baat cheet chal rahin hai.. kal subah 12 baje hum jayenge. (announcement may be made on Sunday, talks are on, I will meet him tomorrow).”
Manjhi has all along been adopting a tougher stance with the BJP regarding the seat-sharing issue.
Besides Paswan, RlSP and HAM leaders had earlier announced that they would agree to a “just” decision on seat-sharing by the BJP president. The BJP has also shown its intent to accommodate allies by reining in its own ambition to contest around 180 seats.
The battle for power in Bihar assumes significance in the context of Prime Minister Narendra Modi leading the NDA charge after BJP’s debacle in the Delhi Assembly polls early this year.
Polls to the 243-seat Bihar Assembly will be held before Dussehra starting October 12. The whole process will come to an end three days before Diwali with results on November 8. The polls will be held on October 12, 16, 28, November 1 and 5. The term of the current Assembly expires on November 29.