The BJP has finally announced the seat-sharing deal with its ally Nitish Kumar’s JD(U) for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has managed to get quite a “respectable” share in the 40-seat lok sabha seats with the JD(U) getting 17 seats just one less than the larger ally BJP.
According to the sources, the deal was made in the second week of September in Delhi between Prime Minister Modi, BJP chief Amit Shah and the Bihar Chief Minister, who kept a steady pressure on the saffron ally. The other NDA allies in the state, Ram Vilas Paswan will get five seats and Upendra Kushwaha will get two seats.
In case Kushwaha decides to walk out of the alliance, the two seats meant for his party RLSP will then be equally divided between the two major allies.
A former friend of Nitish Kumar, Kushwaha had formed the RLSP after quitting the JD(U) in 2013 which comprised of mainly disgruntled party leaders.
This is a great bid by the BJP as opposed to last time it has cut down its share of seats from 22 to 17. LJP and RLSP also have lost one seat each from the number they currently have in the Parliament.
However, senior BJP leader Bhupendra Yadav has stated that the formula was by no means final. “Nothing has been finalised, once it is, you will come to know,” he had said
Last month, the JD(U) had reportedly expressed its disapproval over the BJP’s proposal of ’20-20’ seat-sharing formula for its allies in Bihar for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Under the formula, the BJP was keen on contesting 20 of the state’s 40 seats, while leaving 12 seats for JD(U), six for Ram Vilas Paswan’s LJP and two for Upendra Kushwaha’s RLSP. In 2014, the BJP had contested 30 Lok Sabha seats and won on 22.
The BJP is comparing its seat-sharing formula with the one used by the Grand Alliance in the 2015 assembly elections where Nitish Kumar had offered a generous number of seats to keep the alliance intact. Despite his party having 122 seats in the state assembly, he had contested 101 seats, giving an equal number to Lalu Yadav, whose party had only 22 legislators. The Congress, which had just four legislators got 43 seats.