Patna: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday managed to seal a seat-sharing deal with HAM chief and former chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi and decided to contest the crucial assembly polls in Bihar together under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Out of 243 seats, BJP will be contesting 160 seats. Ram Vilas Paswan’s LJP will contest from 40 seats, Upendra Kushwaha led RLSP will fight in 23 seats. Former Bihar CM Jitan Ram Manjhi’s Hindustan Awam Manch (HAM) has been allotted 20 seats. Amit Shah said that some party leaders from HAM will fight under BJP’ s symbol.
NDA is confident of winning a two-third majority in the Bihar polls. We are confident that the people of Bihar will prefer NDA over misleading and corrupt Nitish Kumar government here, the BJP chief said. The BJP national president also took a dig at the ‘grand alliance’ floated by Nitish Kumar, RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav, SP chief Mulyaam Singh Yadav and others.
During the final announcement on the seat-sharing arrangement, BJP chief Shah and leaders of NDA allies – Ram Vilas Paswan (LJP), Upendra Kushwaha-led (RLSP) and Manjhi (HAM-S) were also present.
Earlier, Manjhi was said to be miffed after he was offered 13-15 seats by the BJP and sought to draw a parity with Paswan’s LJP, which was tipped to get around 40 seats. The entire issue was solved after a hectic day of talks on Sunday as negotiations continued till late night.
After the late night confabulation, a HAM(S) leader claimed under the arrangement worked out at the meeting the party would get to field about 20 candidates, while five others would contest on BJP’s symbol.
Meanwhile, BJP’s Central Election Committee is likely to meet on Tuesday to decide on its candidates for the elections. The five-phase polling for the 243-member assembly begins from October 12 and concludes on November 5.
Bureau Report
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