Patna, March 15: With chief minister Nitish Kumar adamant on setting aside four Rajya Sabha seats for the JD(U), his deputy Sushil Kumar Modi today flew off to New Delhi to consult the BJP high command.
Nitish stood firm on his stand at a formal meeting of the NDA on Rajya Sabha seats at his chamber. Realising that Nitish was in no mood to budge, the state BJP leaders authorised Modi to communicate the meeting’s “output” to the party high command.
Sources said senior BJP leaders would speak to Nitish and arrive at a final decision shortly. The last date for filing the nominations for the six Rajya Sabha seats is March 19.
Setting the tone of the 45-minute NDA meeting, Nitish reportedly said the NDA would be the beneficiary of the two Upper House seats that the RJD would lose. “It is common logic that the JD(U) and the BJP should divide the gains equally, pocketing one seat each,” he was quoted as saying.
Besides Nitish and Modi, state NDA convener and BJP minister Nand Kishore Yadav, and senior JD(U) leaders and ministers Vijendra Yadav and Vijay Kumar Choudhary attended the meeting.
Insiders revealed that the BJP leaders tried to push their case stating that the saffron party had 21 surplus votes against the JD(U)’s 13 and how it had backed the JD(U) nominees with its additional votes in the 2006 and 2010 biennial elections. They asked Nitish to return the gesture this time around.
But Nitish, the sources revealed, categorically told them that the “context was different” in the previous elections. “Here, we have the opportunity to increase our respective numerical strength in the Rajya Sabha on the RJD’s spoil. The JD(U) and the BJP will be equal gainers if they get one seat each,” Nitish said, leaving no scope for further talks on the issue.
The JD(U) sources indicated that Nitish was planning to retain all the three MPs — Ali Anwar, Anil Sahani and King Mahendra — completing their term on March 30.
If the JD(U) gets the fourth seat in its share, the state party president, Basishtha Narayan Singh, agriculture minister Narendra Singh and JD(U) leader and chartered accountant Lallan Sharaf might come into the reckoning.
The RJD is learnt to be gearing up to put up the seventh candidate in the race to disallow a walkover to the NDA.
