There were speculations of a split in the NDA ahead of the Bihar polls owing to the prolonged feud between Nitish Kumar and Mr Paswan’s son Chirag Paswan.
A seat-sharing agreement in principle has been reached between the Bihar CM Nitish Kumar led Janata Dal United (JDU) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for the Bihar polls scheduled for October and November this year, NDTV reported, citing sources.
Nitish Kumar’s JD(U) will contest 122 of the 243 seats while the BJP will get 121 seats as per the agreement locked by the NDA members. While Jitan Ram Manjhi’s Hindustani Awam Morcha will be accommodated in Kumar’s JDU, the Lok Janshakti Party led by Ramvilas Paswan will get seats from BJP’s share if they continue with the alliance, sources claimed, NDTV reported.
There were speculations of a split in the NDA ahead of the polls owing to the prolonged feud between Nitish Kumar and Mr Paswan’s son Chirag Paswan who served an ultimatum last week, demanding an immediate announcement of seats.
Earlier on Saturday, the Mahagathbandhan (grand alliance) of opposition announced that RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav will be the chief ministerial candidate and the parties have locked a deal over seat-sharing for the upcoming assembly elections in the state.
“All components of UPA have decided to come together as a coalition for the Bihar Assembly elections. Congress, RJD, CPI, CPI(M) & Vikassheel Insaan Party will be part of this alliance under the leadership of RJD. We want Bihar to prosper under Tejashwi Yadav,” Congress leader Avinash Pandey said.
Apart from RJD, which is leading the alliance in the state, the Congress, Left parties CPI-ML, CPI, and the CPI(M), Bollywood set designer Mukesh Sahni’s Vikasheel Insan Party (VIP) and Jharkhand’s ruling party JMM will fight the Bihar polls together scheduled for Octo-Nov.
The Congress will contest on 70 seats, CPI-ML 19, CPI and CPI(M) altogether 10, while the remaining seats in the 243-strong assembly will be contested by Lalu Prasad Yadav’s RJD, Said Tejashwi Yadav.
Tejashwi also said that RJD will accommodate Mukesh Sahni’s VIP and JMM in its quota of 144 seats.
The Congress has also been offered a seat of Valmiki Nagar Lok Sabha, whereby-poll will be held on November 7.
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