After RLSP's exit from NDA, now LJP 'warns' BJP over seat sharing for 2019 elections

A week after the RLSP severed ties with the BJP in Bihar, another NDA ally, the LJP, has warned the coalition saying it may suffer a "loss" if seat-sharing agreement for 2019 Lok Sabha elections is not finalised on time.

LJP Parliamentary Board chairman Chirag Paswan (L) with father and party chief Ram Vilas Paswan. Photo: File/ Facebook

NEW DELHI: A week after the RLSP severed ties with the BJP in Bihar, another NDA ally, the LJP, has warned the coalition saying it may suffer a "loss" if seat-sharing agreement for 2019 Lok Sabha elections is not finalised on time. LJP's Parliamentary Board chairman Chirag Paswan said his party reached out to NDA partners to discuss seat-sharing formula many times but talks have so far yielded no concrete results. "After dismembering of the TDP and the RLSP from the NDA fold, the alliance is going through a critical juncture. At such a time, the BJP should properly address the concerns of the remaining parties of the alliance before it is too late," he said in a tweet in Hindi. "We have discussed the seat-sharing issue with BJP leaders many times but failed to reach an agreement. If this issue is not settled on time, it could also lead to damage," Paswan said. Seat sharing formula in Bihar was mired in a controversy after the BJP and the JDU reportedly agreed to contest an equal number of seats (17 each) and leave four for the LJP and two for the RLSP. The 'agreement' has irked Paswan and Kushwaha and both the leaders started building their case. Upendra Kushwaha, who demanded that demanded that the RLSP should be allotted at least five seats, quit the NDA last week. In 2004, the JDU and the BJP contested Lok Sabha elections sharing 26-14 seats. In 2009, the JDU fought on 25 and the BJP on 15. However, in 2014, Nitish Kumar broke ties with the NDA over Narendra Modi’s candidature as Prime Minister and both parties contested separately. The BJP then won 22 seats while its allies the LJP and the RLSP won six and three seats respectively. The NDA won 31 of 40 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar in 2014 and has now been bolstered by the presence of Nitish Kumar's JDU, which fought against it in the last polls. Opposition parties believe political winds are no longer as favourable to the BJP as they were in 2014 due to "anti-incumbency" against both Modi and Kumar and are hoping that Kushwaha's exit further weakens the state's ruling alliance.