BJP President Amit Shah on Thursday met party MPs from Bihar here and chalked out a strategy for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls where it is facing challenges from 'mahagathbandhan' of RJD, Congress, the RLSP and the Hindustani Awam Morcha of the former chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi.

The meeting comes days after the party finalised a seat-sharing formula with its allies in Bihar, the Janata Dal-United and the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP). According to the deal, the BJP and the JD-U would contest 17 seats each while the LJP will contest rest of the six seats of the total 40 Lok Sabha seats of Bihar.

In 2014 the BJP contested along with the LJP, the Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP) and had won 22 seats. The RLSP is now a part of the 'mahagathbandhan'.

The meeting assumes significance as the the BJP, which won 22 seats in 2014, would now contest 17 seats. It means five of the party MPs are unlikely to get tickets again.

Patna Sahib MP Shatrughan Sinha has been attacking BJP and the government on various issues while Darbhanga MP Kirti Azad is already suspended from the party. They are unlikely to get ticktes.

Besides these two seats, the party will have to look for new faces in Begusarai and Madhubani. Bhola Singh, the BJP MP from Begusarai, has passed away while Madhubani's Hukumdev Narayan Yadav has already announced that he will not contest the Lok Sabha elections in 2019.

Sources in the BJP said the leaders also discussed ways to counter the caste combination base of the 'mahagathbandhan' and to aggressively propogate the major welfare schemes of the Central and state government.

--IANS

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