Bihar Election: seat-sharing in NDA is far away, announcement of seats possible this evening

The ruckus over seat-sharing in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) is almost gone. The NDA may announce seats by this evening. Earlier, there was a lot of discussion on seat sharing between NDA and allies in Patna for two days and then in Delhi. The announcement of the seats of each of the NDA partners will be made by late evening after waiting for the outcome of the meeting of the LJP Parliamentary Board scheduled for 5 pm between all the possibilities so far.

Earlier, two in-charge of Bihar, former Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Rajya Sabha MP Bhupendra Yadav, left for New Delhi on Friday evening to discuss the seat and strategy with National President JP Nadda and Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

A senior BJP leader from Bihar who was part of the seat-sharing talks said that wait till evening, everything will be clear. A BJP source said that Yadav and Fadnavis will hold the final round of talks with senior party leaders from Bihar. This will be followed by a meeting with JDU National President Nitish Kumar. Party sources said that almost all the seats have been discussed and the leaders in charge went to discuss the demands of the alliance with senior leaders.

A JD (U) source said that the dispute at the last minute on the seat-sharing between NDA allies has intensified on Friday. In this meeting, BJP and JDU have claimed over a dozen seats sharing. It also includes seats with a strong grip of the RJD. At the same time, LJP has demanded seats of its choice as well as some seats which are the stronghold of JDU and BJP.

A senior BJP leader said that LJP is stubborn. We are awaiting the outcome of their parliamentary party meeting in New Delhi. At the same time, JDU has very cleverly thrown the ball to decide on the party of LJP and Chirag Paswan, saying that only alliance with BJP. In this regard, a senior JDU leader said that it is for the BJP to decide how many seats it wants to give to LJP. This is their internal matter. As far as JDU is concerned, we are accommodating Manjhi's party HAM in our seats. When asked about the formula, he said wait a day. We will contest more seats.

A party official, on the condition of anonymity, said that BJP and JDU are fighting hard for some seats against each other. They have resolved the division of more than 123 seats out of 243 seats. Both parties have agreed to retain winning seats or strongholds. However, the parties are bargaining hard for the remaining 120-plus seats. He said that LJP is also demanding some seats which are JDU's stronghold. He said that the BJP wants to contest on seats equal to JDU, on which JD-U is not yet agreed.