Bihar polls: JDU, BJP likely to contest on equal number of seats

NEW DELHI: A few days ahead of announcement of Bihar assembly poll dates, NDA parties are on the verge of finalising seat-sharing arrangements. They expect a better performance than in 2020, when key ally Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) had contested independently.

Home minister Amit Shah, who will steer the alliance strategy, held the first round of meetings with Janata Dal United boss and Bihar CM Nitish Kumar in Patna on Thursday. Deputy CM Samrat Choudhary, senior JDU netas Sanjay Jha and Vijay Kumar Choudhary also attended the meet.

Alliance sources said the two lead allies are likely to agree on contesting almost an equal number of seats, while sparing a reasonable number for other partners, including Chirag Paswan 's LJP (Ram Vilas), Jitan Ram Manjhi's Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM), and Upendra Kushwaha's Rashtriya Lok Morcha (RLM).

Sources said EC is likely to announce Bihar poll dates in the first week of Oct. The BJP-led NDA aims at sealing the seat-sharing arrangements well ahead of that. "All netas in the Patna meeting agreed to finalise seat-sharing in Sept," said a senior NDA member, adding that initial talks have been quite positive with no bottlenecks.

Though JDU and BJP are likely to contest an equal number of seats, there is a possibility that JDU will take a couple of more seats to position Nitish Kumar's regional powerhouse as the lead party.

Asked about NDA contesting the polls under Kumar, though there has not been a formal announcement he will continue as CM in case of the BJP-led bloc wins, the alliance neta said, "A formal announcement is not needed as allies are contesting under Nitish Kumar, therefore, it is implied that he is the CM candidate too."

The 30-minute Shah-Kumar meeting was described by NDA sources as a courtesy call. Sources said of the 243 assembly seats, BJP and the JDU are likely to contest approximately 100-102 seats each and the rest will be spared for the three other allies with LJP (Ram Vilas) poised for a larger share.

HAM neta and Union Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi has openly demanded 15-20 seats. LJP (Ram Vilas) has also sought "respectable" representation, with party's Jamui MP Arun Bharti hinting at a claim of 43-137 seats. However, alliance leaders have hinted that Chirag will get 20 seats, Manjhi 10-12, and Kushwaha's RLM seven.