BJP, JDU, LJP finalise 17:17:6 seat sharing formula for Bihar Lok Sabha polls
, ET Bureau|
Updated: Dec 24, 2018, 08.59 AM IST
After some initial hiccups, Ram Vilas Paswan’s LJP on Sunday reached a seat-sharing agreement with allies BJP and JDU in the Capital. As per the deal, the LJP will contest six of the 40 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar and Paswan will be given a Rajya Sabha ticket. The BJP and JDU will contest 17 seats each in the state as announced in October.
The announcement was made by BJP chief Amit Shah, Paswan and Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar after a meeting at Shah’s residence. Shah said details such as which party will contest which seat will be worked out at subsequent meetings.
“This decision has been taken unanimously by the three parties after assessing the ground situation in Bihar and the strength of the NDA. All three parties are confident that we will win more seats than 2014,” Shah said.
JDU chief Nitish Kumar said the three partners will sit together and decide which seats will be contested by which party. “Keeping long service of Ram Vilas Paswan to the nation in mind, the NDA has decided to send him to the Rajya Sabha from wherever the first election is held,” Kumar said and thanked Shah for upholding Paswan’s dignity.
The announcement has been made to end all kinds of speculations being made by experts, he said. Kumar was confident of the three parties doing well in 2019 elections. “In 2009, when the JDU and BJP had contested together in the Lok Sabha, the two won 32 seats, whatever may have been the NDA performance in other states. Shah said we would get what we got in 2014. But as per my understanding, we will get more seats this time than we did in 2009,” Kumar said.
The LJP had upped the ante after the RLSP walked out of the NDA. RJD’s Tejaswi Yadav had some months back openly invited both LJP and RLSP to join the UPA. On December 18, Paswan’s son and Jamui MP Chirag had tweeted that “BJP should respectfully address the concerns of the remaining NDA partners well in time”. He had said that several meetings had taken place with BJP leaders, but “nothing concrete has emerged till date”.
Finance minister Arun Jaitley and Chirag held some rounds of meetings before the final outcome. Paswan gave credit to the two for finding an acceptable solution on seat sharing. Paswan is likely to get into the Rajya Sabha from Assam in June when two seats fall vacant. While both the seats are held by Congress — Manmohan Singh and Santiuse Kujur — one will come to the BJP after its win in the last assembly elections.
Chirag is likely to contest from his father’s seat Hajipur, the family pocket-borough where his prospects are brighter than in Jamui, in 2019.
The BJP initially wanted to give five seats to the LJP, but this was not acceptable to Paswan. With the RLSP walking out, Shah did not want to risk losing another ally in Bihar. Though the BJP won 22 seats in 2014, it is contesting only 17 this time. In 2014, LJP had contested seven Lok Sabha seats in Bihar and won six as part of the NDA, while Upendra Kushwaha’s RLSP had won all the three seats it contested. The JDU, contesting alone, could win only two.
Paswan is known for his acumen to read the tea-leaves and stay with the coalition that has a better chance of coming to power. But he has given credit to Chirag for his switching over to the NDA in 2013 and now staying with it for 2019.
The announcement was made by BJP chief Amit Shah, Paswan and Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar after a meeting at Shah’s residence. Shah said details such as which party will contest which seat will be worked out at subsequent meetings.
“This decision has been taken unanimously by the three parties after assessing the ground situation in Bihar and the strength of the NDA. All three parties are confident that we will win more seats than 2014,” Shah said.
JDU chief Nitish Kumar said the three partners will sit together and decide which seats will be contested by which party. “Keeping long service of Ram Vilas Paswan to the nation in mind, the NDA has decided to send him to the Rajya Sabha from wherever the first election is held,” Kumar said and thanked Shah for upholding Paswan’s dignity.
The announcement has been made to end all kinds of speculations being made by experts, he said. Kumar was confident of the three parties doing well in 2019 elections. “In 2009, when the JDU and BJP had contested together in the Lok Sabha, the two won 32 seats, whatever may have been the NDA performance in other states. Shah said we would get what we got in 2014. But as per my understanding, we will get more seats this time than we did in 2009,” Kumar said.
The LJP had upped the ante after the RLSP walked out of the NDA. RJD’s Tejaswi Yadav had some months back openly invited both LJP and RLSP to join the UPA. On December 18, Paswan’s son and Jamui MP Chirag had tweeted that “BJP should respectfully address the concerns of the remaining NDA partners well in time”. He had said that several meetings had taken place with BJP leaders, but “nothing concrete has emerged till date”.
Finance minister Arun Jaitley and Chirag held some rounds of meetings before the final outcome. Paswan gave credit to the two for finding an acceptable solution on seat sharing. Paswan is likely to get into the Rajya Sabha from Assam in June when two seats fall vacant. While both the seats are held by Congress — Manmohan Singh and Santiuse Kujur — one will come to the BJP after its win in the last assembly elections.
Chirag is likely to contest from his father’s seat Hajipur, the family pocket-borough where his prospects are brighter than in Jamui, in 2019.
The BJP initially wanted to give five seats to the LJP, but this was not acceptable to Paswan. With the RLSP walking out, Shah did not want to risk losing another ally in Bihar. Though the BJP won 22 seats in 2014, it is contesting only 17 this time. In 2014, LJP had contested seven Lok Sabha seats in Bihar and won six as part of the NDA, while Upendra Kushwaha’s RLSP had won all the three seats it contested. The JDU, contesting alone, could win only two.
Paswan is known for his acumen to read the tea-leaves and stay with the coalition that has a better chance of coming to power. But he has given credit to Chirag for his switching over to the NDA in 2013 and now staying with it for 2019.
