The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and ally Lok Jan Shakti Party (LJP) on Friday initiated discussions on seat sharing for the upcoming Bihar Assembly elections.
Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan's son Chirag Paswan on Friday met BJP president Amit Shah at the BJP headquarters in the national capital to discuss seat sharing for the state polls.
The meeting was also attended by BJP’s Bihar in-charge BhupendraYadav.
This comes after the rival alliance of Janata Dal United (JDU), Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Congress sealed their seat sharing for the elections.
While the JDU and the RJD are set to contest on 100 seats each, the Congress will be in fray on 40 seats across the state.
In the last Assembly elections in 2010, the JDU had contested 141 seats in alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party which had fought on 102. But Nitish Kumar broke the alliance with BJP in June 2013 over the projection of Narendra Modi as the prime ministerial candidate for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
While the JDU had won 115 seats, the BJP bagged 91 ensuring Nitish Kumar's swearing-in as Bihar Chief Minister for the third time in 2010.
But now JDU is in alliance with Lalu Prasad's RJD with the Congress and Nationalist Congress Party too rallying around Nitish Kumar. Lalu, a two-time Bihar chief minister, is now debarred from contesting elections following his conviction in a fodder scam case. Lalu and his wife Rabri Devi held the post of chief ministership from 1990 to 2005 before they were routed by the Nitish Kumar-led JDU-BJP alliance.
On the other hand BJP has also expanded its alliance by including Ram Vilas Paswan's Lok Janshakti Party, Upendra Khushwaha-led Rashtriya Lok Samata Party and Hindustani Awam Morcha of Jitan Ram Manjhi. BJP leaders are also in touch with rebel RJD MP Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav who has launched his own outfit Jan Adhikar Manch.
Bihar is likely to witness a multi-phase election in October-November. The term of the current Assembly ends on November 29.
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