Amit Shah, Upendra Kushwaha talk over seat sharing postponed, likely to meet in few days

Ahead of his meeting with Amit Shah, RLSP chief Upendra Kushwaha also met with BJP's Bihar in-charge Bhupendra Yadav on Tuesday. Kushwaha’s RLSP is a part of the BJP-led alliance in Bihar along with Nitish Kumar's JD(U) and Ramvilas Paswan's Lok Janshakti Party (LJP).

Kushwaha, who had declared that he stands "firmly" with the NDA, had earlier said, “Amit Shah spoke of equal dissemination of seats between BJP and JDU, but hasn’t declared a number so far; from Amit Shah’s talks ‘equal’ doesn’t have a specific meaning”. He further said that “Till there is a meeting between all four parties, nothing can be said./ PTI IMAGE

NEW DELHI: As the stalemate between RLSP president Upendra Kushwaha and BJP over seat distribution for 2019 Lok Sabha elections continued on Tuesday, the Bihar leader said his discussions with the BJP today were 'positive but nothing has been finalised yet'. Reports suggested that Kushwaha was to meet BJP chief Amit Shah but met the party's state-incharge Bhupender Yadav instead in the morning following which he briefed media persons here. "We have made Bharatiya Janata Party aware of what our party & supporters want for seat-sharing (in 2019 Lok Sabha polls). They said we will hold discussions. Discussions were positive but nothing has been finalised yet," he said. Kushwaha, who is known to be a hard bargainer, said that the BJP President was busy therefore the meeting could not take place.  He denied reports of him resigning. He said his meeting with the BJP chief will take place in the next 3-4 days. It is reported that Kushwaha is angry over Shah's announcement of the BJP and the JD(U) contesting equal number of seats in Bihar. When Bihar CM Nitish Kumar and Amit Shah had announced the seat-sharing formula for NDA, hours later, photographs of RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav and NDA ally and Kushwaha meeting had gone viral. Kushwaha, who is Union Minister of State for HRD, also declared that he has put forth 66 candidates to contest assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh next month.  Elucidating his meeting with RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, Kushwaha said, "Media persons were also present there. Tejashwi Yadav came to my room at circuit house.I went for party-related work & Tejashwi Yadav was already present there.We met in presence of a lot of people."

 BJP, JD(U) seat-sharing deal -

Amit Shah and Nitish Kumar had announced last week that both BJP and JDU will contest on an equal number of seats after granting a “respectable number of seats” to the allies in the state. The announcement came after the Bihar chief minister met Narendra Modi and Shah at each of their residences. Shah said that as of now the formula for distribution has been finalized, the decision on the number of seats will be taken in the subsequent meetings. Kushwaha, who had declared that he stands "firmly" with the NDA, had earlier said, “Amit Shah spoke of equal dissemination of seats between BJP and JDU, but hasn’t declared a number so far; from Amit Shah’s talks ‘equal’ doesn’t have a specific meaning”. He further said that “Till there is a meeting between all four parties, nothing can be said. So far no discussion has taken place between parties on the number of seats; Amit Shah has said that they will get equal seats”. Amit Shah had also said that Upendra Kushwaha is with them and that he will soon announce the division of seats. As per sources, Upendra Kushwaha’s Rashtriya Lok Samata Party will be given only two seats and Ram Vilas Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party will be given four seats, while BJP and JDU will enjoy a share of 17 seats each, based on the 50-50 seat-sharing formula given by JDU and agreed by BJP.

RLSP's ungainly tenure in NDA -

Kushwaha’s RLSP is a part of the BJP-led alliance in Bihar along with Nitish Kumar's JD(U) and Ramvilas Paswan's Lok Janshakti Party (LJP). Kushwaha, a former JD(U) leader who had quit the party in 2013, months after suspension on disciplinary grounds, had floated his own outfit and joined the NDA while Nitish Kumar's party was out of the BJP-led coalition. The decision of the BJP, which had won 22 seats in 2014 general elections, to treat as an equal the JD(U) that returned with a dismal tally of only two, is also being seen as a snub to Kushwaha, who has been viewing Kumar's return to the NDA with consternation. The RLSP had contested on three seats under the NDA banner in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls and had won on all the seats. Kushwaha himself had won from the Karakat seat.