NDA faces seat-sharing crisis in Bihar, allies demand 37 out of 40 LS seats from BJP

After Nitish Kumar-led JDU stated that it wants a major share in the seats, two other NDA partners, LJP and RLSP, have also started building their case.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. Photo: PTI

NEW DELHI: With just less than a year to go for 2019 Lok Sabha elections, there emerged a crisis like situation in the NDA over the seat-sharing formula in Bihar. After Nitish Kumar-led JDU stated that it wants a major share in the seats, two other NDA partners, LJP and RLSP, have also started building their case. Days ago, the JDU has insisted that Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is the leader of the alliance in Bihar and it has been the "senior partner" in the state. It also unilaterally announced its intention of contesting 25 of 40 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar. On the other hand, Ram Vilas Paswan's LJP has asked for seven seats and Upendra Kushwaha's RLSP has demanded that it should be allotted at least five seats. While Kushwaha has demanded that seat-sharing be decided at the earliest, Paswan is also understood to have taken up the matter with BJP president Amit Shah when he called on him in Delhi last week. After Nitish snapped ties with the BJP in 2013, LJP and RLSP joined the NDA which went on to win a total of 31 seats in the state in 2014 lok Sabha elections out of which BJP bagged 22. With the JDU asking for 25, the LJP seven and the RLSP five, what left for the BJP is to contest next year's general elections on just three seats in Bihar. In 2009 Lok Sabha polls, when the two fought together, the JDU had won 22 out of 25 seats it had contested while the BJP won 12 out of 15. In the 2014 Lok Sabha poll, the JDU had gone it all alone and won just two sets. What may make Nitish's case stronger is that the JDU registered an impressive presence in the assembly elections held in 2015 as a partner of the RJD and the Congress in the Grand Alliance. Senior JDU leader Shyam Rajak fired warning shots at the BJP saying that they have to agree to their terms to keep benefitting from the JDU in Bihar. "Nitish Kumar and the JDU play a major role in Bihar. We had contested the election on 25 seats. They'll have to give us 25 seats, no question of any lesser number of seats. If NDA wants to be benefited by Nitish Kumar's image, they'll have to do justice to JDU and him," he told ANI.