BJP president Amit Shah on Friday held seat-sharing talks with the LJP's Chirag Paswan for Assembly elections, pushed into urgency by the unexpected amicable seat adjustment between Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad.
The BJP had expected a bitter fight between bade bhaiyya (elder brother) Lalu and chhote bhaiyya (younger brother) Nitish over seat-sharing but the duo shocked everyone by announcing the JDU and the RJD would contest 100 seats each and leave 40 for the Congress.
This amicable settlement between the past rivals has now pressured the BJP to ensure they too resolve the seat distribution with their allies without any differences and come up with a united face.
At the meeting, Union food and consumers affairs minister Ram Vilas Paswan's scion, Chirag, placed a demand for at least 40-45 seats for the LJP, said sources. The party had won six Lok Sabha seats in alliance with the BJP and wants to have a respectable number of seats to accommodate state party leaders.
"The meeting was very good. Along with seat-sharing, we discussed a lot of other issues related to the elections," said Chirag, the Jamui MP, not ready to divulge much. Bhupender Yadav, BJP's in-charge for Bihar, was also present during the meeting.
BJP state president Mangal Pandey said: "Chirag's meeting with Amit Shah was the first round of talks. Our party will sort out the seat-sharing issue with its allies without any heartburn."
Sources said based on its six MPs from the state and one in Lok Sabha (Nalanda) constituency, the LJP wanted to contest 45-50 seats. Chirag informed Shah that his party would not stake claim to the seats, where the BJP had sitting MLAs or in such seats, where the BJP candidates lost by a narrow margin.
The BJP has ambitious allies this time, like the Rashtriya Lok Samata Party, led by Upendra Kushwaha, Jitan Ram Manjhi's Hindustani Awam Party Secular apart from the LJP and accommodating their expectations could be a tough task for it.
Kushwaha, who is even eyeing the chief minister's post, is demanding a large share of seats, sources said. The BJP wants to contest the lion's share of the seats to ensure no alliance partner is able to claim the post.
Expelled RJD MP Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav is another of BJP's allies. Pappu met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday for around 45 minutes and Katihar MP Tariq Anwar, seeking to strike an alliance with the NCP.
The NCP leader is learnt to be very upset on being left just three seats to contest and has communicated his anger to the JDU leadership. He, sources said, has clearly told the JDU leadership that taking three seats was unacceptable.
Efforts are on to assuage him and there is a possibility that more seats could be offered to the NCP from the Congress's quota of 40 seats. Meanwhile, Pappu is trying to woo the NCP leader to contest in alliance with him in the Kosi region to form a Muslim-Yadav combination.
In the Assembly elections in 2010, the JDU and the BJP were alliance partners. This time, however, both the parties are on the opposite sides with even their allies changing.
Sources said the BJP was planning to contest not less than 150 seats in the elections, while leaving 90 to 95 seats for its partners. If the BJP gives 45-50 seats to the LJP, it would be a huge challenge for the state as well as for the national leadership of the BJP to accommodate both Manjhi and Kushwaha in the remaining 50 seats. Sources said though there were many JDU dissidents, which are now with the Manjhi camp, they were planning to join the BJP bandwagon.
The state BJP president, Mangal Pandey, also said for the BJP and its allies - the LJP, the RLSP and the HAMS - the deteriorating law and order was the main poll plank and the alliance will go to the elections harping on the issue. Pandey said in just five days, more than 30 persons had been killed over extortion or some other issue in the state.
