Patna | The Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP) on Thursday urged the BJP to hold a meeting of all NDA constituents in Bihar at the earliest so that a seat-sharing formula could be arrived at well ahead of next year’s Lok Sabha polls.
The RLSP, which is headed by Union Minister Upendra Kushwaha, came up with the demand in the wake of reports that the BJP has decided to contest 20 out of the 40 seats, leaving the rest for allies which also include Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s JD(U) and Ram Vilas Paswan’s LJP. The reports were, however, discounted by senior BJP leader and Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi.
“We demand that the BJP, as the largest constituent of the NDA in Bihar, take initiative and convene a meeting of all constituents at the earliest so that the issue of seat-sharing could be resolved”, RLSP national general secretary Madhaw Anand said.
He said, “The reports of the BJP having already taken a decision as to how many seats each constituent would contest lack authenticity… however, if there is any truth in these it is unfortunate on part of our senior coalition partner as the reported formula does not give due weightage to Kushwaha who has emerged as one of the tallest leaders in Bihar.”
The reports suggested that out of the 20 seats left for allies, the JD(U) was likely to get 12-13, the LJP five and the RLSP only two or three.
The reports came close on the heels of Kushwaha having caused a flutter earlier this week when he spoke about the possibility of political ties between his own caste group and the Yadavs, which was inferred as the RLSP chief’s intent to join hands with the opposition RJD.
The Union minister, however, clarified later that he was very much in the NDA and he had spoken about “kheer” made of rice grown by Kushwahas and milk produced by Yadavs with an eye on expansion of his own party base.
A former confidant of Nitish Kumar, Kushwaha had quit the JD(U) in 2013 and floated his own party and contested the Lok Sabha elections the following year as a constituent of the NDA and won three seats. The RLSP bagged only two seats in the 2015 Assembly polls.
Kumar – who had snapped 17-year-old ties with the BJP in 2013 – fought the Lok Sabha polls separately and the Assembly polls as part of the Grand Alliance comprising RJD and Congress. He returned to the NDA last year.
Meanwhile, Sushil Kumar Modi tweeted “neither any decision has been taken within the NDA on seat sharing for 2019, nor there is any controversy. We are aiming at winning all 40 seats and this is the common target of all NDA allies”.
Using an episode from the epic Mahabharata, he added “those who look at the bird’s eye, do not allow their gaze to wander elsewhere”.
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