New Delhi, Sept. 16: A miffed Upendra Kushwaha today refused to engage with Bihar BJP leaders for seat-sharing talks and sought intervention of the central leadership, upset after the BJP announced the first list of candidates without "proper consultations".

The Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP) came out to protest after the BJP announced the names of 43 candidates, including the candidate for the Karakat Assembly segment that falls under Kushwaha's Lok Sabha constituency.

"This is against the coalition dharma. The first list of candidates was announced even as seat-sharing talks are on," RLSP spokesperson Fazal Islam Mallik said.

Kushwaha, a junior minister in the central government, refrained from coming out to protest in public but communicated his annoyance to the BJP central leadership. A sulking Kushwaha sat in his official residence refusing to hold talks with the Bihar BJP leaders as the BJP managers tried to pacify him.

"We have made it clear that we will not talk seat-sharing with the Bihar BJP leaders. We will only talk to the central leadership," an RLSP leader said.

Kushwaha, the second NDA ally, after the Lok Janshakti Party, to get upset over seat-sharing, compounded problems for the BJP. A scheduled meeting of the BJP's campaign committee with the allies, to draw up a plan for campaigning, had to be put off.

The RLSP chief was upset not only because the BJP has fielded a candidate in Karakat but also due the manner in which the announcement was made. Spruces in the RLSP said their leader was "shocked" by the announcement of names as it came while they were engaged with Bihar BJP leaders - Mangal Pandey, Ashwini Choubey and Gopal Narain Singh - for identification of the 23 seats the RLSP would contest.

"The talk with the three Bihar BJP leaders was on. We took a one-hour break to meet again for identification of seats and suddenly we were told that the BJP has announced first list, including Karakat," said an RLSP leader stating they were dismayed. Thereafter the RLSP leaders refused to talk to the Bihar BJP leaders in protest.

The distribution of number of seats each NDA partner would contest has been sorted out but the most problematic aspect, the identification of Assembly segments each partner will contest, remains.

The allies fear that the BJP would try to use its dominant role to give them seats where they do not stand a good chance to win. In many cases the allies want to contest seats, which the BJP too is eager to contest. A similar problem has arisen with the LJP too. The LJP is adamant that two segments, Chakai and Jamui, falling under Chirag Paswan's Lok Sabha constituency should not be allotted to any other ally. But the BJP wants to field its candidate in one of them while Manjhi has laid his claim on the second one.

The BJP leadership, however, hoped to pacify the allies and resolve the seat identification process in couple of days.