Nitish Kumar, Ram Vilas Paswan, Chirag Paswan, Amit Shah and Bhupender Yadav in New Delhi on Sunday. (Express photo by Renuka Puri)Sealing the seat-sharing arrangement for the 40 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar, BJP president Amit Shah announced on Sunday that his party and the JD(U) would contest 17 seats each, while the LJP would field candidates from the remaining six seats.
Shah also said that LJP president Ram Vilas Paswan would be sent to the Rajya Sabha at the earliest opportunity.
Shah made the announcement after a meeting with JD(U) leader Nitish Kumar and LJP president Ram Vilas Paswan at his residence in the morning. The meeting was also attended by Chirag Paswan and Bhupender Yadav, who is the BJP leader in charge of Bihar.
“After a long discussion, it has been decided that the BJP will contest 17 seats, JD(U) will contest 17 seats and LJP will contest six seats in Bihar. Also, Ram Vilas Paswan will go to Rajya Sabha as the NDA nominee in the next Rajya Sabha elections,” Shah said.
Bid to keep its allies happy, together
In 2014, the BJP fielded candidates from 30 seats, out of which it won 22. It gave allies LJP and RLSP seven and three seats respectively — LJP won six seats, RLSP won all three seats. The JD(U) fought the polls separately, and won two seats.
The new seat-sharing arrangement means that BJP will have to let go of at least five of its winning seats.
In 2009, the JD(U) contested 25 seats, out of which it won 20. The BJP fielded candidates from 15 seats, out of which it won 12. The LJP, which fought the polls in alliance with RJD, contested from 12 seats, but didn’t win any.
The 2019 seat-sharing deal suggests a victory of sorts for the LJP, which had adopted an aggressive stand, seeking a better bargain from the BJP and early announcement of seat-sharing after the recent exit of RLSP leader Upendra Kushwaha from the ruling alliance. Kushwaha has joined the Opposition’s alliance.
While Chirag Paswan had recently made comments seen as critical of the BJP-led government at the Centre, including questioning the benefits of demonetisation, Ram Vilas Paswan said on Sunday that there was no problem in the alliance. He asserted that Chirag plays a key role in the LJP’s presence in the NDA.
Shah said Nitish, Paswan and his son Chirag, and Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Modi have jointly drafted a rough sketch of the NDA’s joint campaign for Bihar. “After giving it a final shape in the coming days, we will soon reach out to the people with the NDA’s political agenda,” he said.
Stating that the allies would soon decide on distribution of constituencies, Shah asserted that the NDA would improve its 2014 performance.
Commenting on the decision to send Paswan, currently a Lok Sabha member from Hajipur in Bihar, to the Rajya Sabha, Nitish said it was a recognition of his long service to the country and thanked the BJP for taking care of Paswan’s dignity. Paswan (72) is a nine-term member of the Lok Sabha and the decision to enter the Rajya Sabha means that he is unlikely to contest any Lok Sabha election in the future.
Meanwhile, reacting to NDA’s seat-sharing announcement, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav said the LJP and JD(U) had benefitted from questioning Prime Minister Narendra Modi on demonetisation after two years. He tweeted that despite having 22 sitting MPs, the BJP had agreed to give an equal number of seats to Nitish. “Now you can understand the dire straits the NDA is in,” he said.
