Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar on Monday said that seat sharing issue with the BJP will be done soon after a proposal on this would come from BJP in three-four weeks.
“But, nothing has been done on it now…there will be one to one talk with the BJP on this issue”, he asserted while addressing journalists on the sidelines of his weekly Lok Samvad (people’s interaction) programme in Patna.
Party insiders told The Hindu that JD(U) would get at least 12 out of total 40 Parliamentary seats in Bihar in the seat sharing formulae with the BJP.
Meanwhile, other alliance partner of the BJP in Bihar Rashtriya Lok Samata Party chief Upendra Kushwaha on Sunday had said that “unless all alliance party leaders would not sit together the seat sharing among NDA will not be done”.
RLSP, said NDA insiders, is likely to get two seats in the seat sharing formula. In the 2014 LS Polls, the party had got three seats and won all three. However one of its party MPs from Jehanabad, Arun Kumar, had later rebelled against Mr. Kushwaha and is likely to be accommodated in the BJP quota of seats this time.
Mr. Kumar also said that special status grant to Bihar has been an old demand and “Bihar must be accorded special status as it is a land-locked state”.
“We will raise this demand again at (sic) all-party meeting”, he said. “Earlier too we had sought time from former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for this but he had not given us time”, he said.
“We’ve come to know that all parties of Bihar have given their consent for the demand of special stats grant to Bihar”, added Mr. Kumar.