Patna, June 29: The seat-sharing talks among the RJD, JDU and Congress for the Assembly elections are going to be a test of nerves for leaders who would undertake the negotiations after the Council elections.

Lalu Prasad-led RJD is planning to play the merger card while negotiating the seat-sharing issue. A party insider, who is likely to be part of the talks, said the RJD would not entertain the JDU's claim regarding its performance in the previous Assembly polls, which might be projected as a plank for demanding more seats.

The JDU has, at present, 111 MLAs in its kitty and the party had contested 141 seats in the 2010 Assembly polls. The RJD has 24 MLAs and the Congress has five, at present.

"Such logic is not going to be entertained and we would put forward the merger logic in case the JDU demands more seat than us. Instead of taking the past performance in account we would press for seat allocation on the basis of present ground realities," said the RJD strategist.

Another senior leader of the party, who requested anonymity, maintained that the party would also seek a quid pro quo from the JDU as the RJD has accepted Nitish Kumar as the chief ministerial face which is not a small thing to do and that too even before finalisation of seat-sharing talks.

"We would press for 110 seats and would not compromise on less than 100 seats," added the RJD leader.

JDU strategists, however, are busy training their guns to demand more seats than the RJD. "Our party had contested more than 140 seats in 2010 elections and even at present our number is more than 100. How can we settle for less?" said a senior JDU leader, also a minister in the Nitish government, said.

Another leader of the ruling party, who generally remains engaged in organisational work, said: "We would ask for 140-plus seats during the negotiation and would not settle for anything less than 120."

The leader also maintained that the seat-sharing talks were likely to be prolonged one as hard bargaining was bound to take place.

"It may prolong till August-end," said the JDU leader, adding: "The BJP leaders used to be hard bargainers so I don't think it would be tough dealing with the RJD given the fact that alliance has already accepted Nitish's leadership."

Amid the claims and counterclaims of the RJD and JDU leaders, the Congress is also busy making efforts to get a respectable number of seats for the Assembly elections. "We are demanding 50 seats and the top brass of the JDU and RJD have already been briefed on this front," said a senior Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee functionary and added that it might compromise four or five seats but it would not be more than that.

Interestingly, none of the senior leaders of the alliance partners is willing to utter anything on record claiming that it might jeopardise the seat-sharing talks. While these leaders are cautious, both Lalu and Nitish have been trying to project brave face on this issue and have been maintaining that seat sharing was not an issue in the alliance.