Both BJP and JDU leaders have recently been giving hints in their statements that the existence of the BJP-JDU alliance in Bihar can come under threat before the upcoming 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
The statement has triggered speculations and has put a question mark on the longevity of the alliance of BJP and JDU in Bihar.
Nitish's statement ahead of the elections gives a smiliar hint. First of all he talked about his '3C rule' of not compromising with crime, corruption and communalism at any cost. Second, he said in his address that ‘many start having problems in an alliance ... leave alliance and talk about the work.’
In his words: “alliance chhoriye..kaam ki baat kariye”.
Nitish, who has always been pressing the agenda of special state status for Bihar with the Centre, has once again underlined his demand. When BJP and JDU had come closer after forming government in Bihar, Nitish’s demand had cooled off for a while. In Niti Aayog’s General Council meeting on Monday, he again raised the demand of special state status.
Nitish said while addressing a gathering: “Now since we are lagging behind, we have to come to the front, I provided all the reasons for the same in Niti Aayog’s meeting yesterday.”
The road to 2019 elections does not seem smooth for BJP-JDU alliance in Bihar. Rifts have started taking place between the two parties.
BJP’s State General Secretary Rajendra Singh has said that BJP will be contesting elections on 22 seats, while JDU maintains that it will keep 25 seats for itself.
Singh had said: “We will definitely field our candidates on those seats from which we won in 2014”.
The problem is that Bihar has 40 Lok Sabha seats. If BJP claims 22 and JDU takes 25, it would sum up to 47, which exceeds the number of seats. LJP has demanded 7 seats and RLSP has asked for 5 seats.