At a time when the Janata Dal (United) and Rashtriya Janata Dal are seeking strength in unity and moving steadily towards a merger, the rival National Democratic Alliance’s internal cohesion has come under strain over seat-sharing in the do-or-die election in Bihar.
The pre-campaign tremors in the NDA have been triggered by the demands set forth by the Rashtriya Lok Samata Party. Though one of the two small allies of the Bharatiya Janata Party, it has asked to be allowed to contest from at least 40 seats when the state goes to polls later this year. The BJP has deemed the demand “highly unreasonable,” sources said, and it is in no mood to give the RSLP more than 15 seats.
Behind this hesitancy is the BJP's own electoral calculus. The Bihar Assembly has 243 seats, and BJP president Amit Shah has already announced the party’s “Mission 185-plus” in the state.
Addressing a rally in Patna on January 23 this year, Shah had said, “The Bihar electorate has already reposed faith in Prime Minister Narendra Modi by giving the BJP-led NDA 31 of the 40 seats in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. The BJP is destined to top it up by notching 185-plus seats in the Assembly elections. No power on earth can stop the BJP from conquering Bihar.”
BJP sources said the party must contest a minimum of 200 seats if it wants to attempt the target set by Shah. That leaves a total of 43 seats for the RLSP and Ram Vilas Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party.
More bickering
Though Paswan is yet to place any formal demand before the BJP, his party’s ambition to remain a prominent member of the NDA in Bihar is not a secret. Within 24 hours of Shah making his assertion in January, LJP state president Pashupati Kumar Paras, in the presence of Ram Vilas Paswan’s son and party parliamentary committee president Chirag Paswan, had said that the LJP and RLSP should get 140 seats while the BJP should field candidates in 103 constituencies. At that time, he also claimed that the LJP had contested 75 seats in the 2010 Assembly elections and either won or came second in 52.
In the Lok Sabha election, the BJP contested 30 seats, the LJP seven and the RLSP three in Bihar. Of these, the BJP won 22, the LJP six and the RLSP all three.
The BJP’s reluctance to give the RLSP more than 15 seats – as against the demanded 40 – is likely to intensify the bickering within the NDA, a senior LJP leader said. “We are closely monitoring the initial exchanges between the BJP and RLSP on sharing of seats,” the leader added.
Despite the BJP’s rigid stance, sources in the RLSP said the party is determined to widen its base in the state and will “do everything to get a respectable” share of seats from the saffron party. What has boosted its morale is the relative success of its rally in Patna’s Gandhi Maidan on April 5.
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The pre-campaign tremors in the NDA have been triggered by the demands set forth by the Rashtriya Lok Samata Party. Though one of the two small allies of the Bharatiya Janata Party, it has asked to be allowed to contest from at least 40 seats when the state goes to polls later this year. The BJP has deemed the demand “highly unreasonable,” sources said, and it is in no mood to give the RSLP more than 15 seats.
Behind this hesitancy is the BJP's own electoral calculus. The Bihar Assembly has 243 seats, and BJP president Amit Shah has already announced the party’s “Mission 185-plus” in the state.
Addressing a rally in Patna on January 23 this year, Shah had said, “The Bihar electorate has already reposed faith in Prime Minister Narendra Modi by giving the BJP-led NDA 31 of the 40 seats in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. The BJP is destined to top it up by notching 185-plus seats in the Assembly elections. No power on earth can stop the BJP from conquering Bihar.”
BJP sources said the party must contest a minimum of 200 seats if it wants to attempt the target set by Shah. That leaves a total of 43 seats for the RLSP and Ram Vilas Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party.
More bickering
Though Paswan is yet to place any formal demand before the BJP, his party’s ambition to remain a prominent member of the NDA in Bihar is not a secret. Within 24 hours of Shah making his assertion in January, LJP state president Pashupati Kumar Paras, in the presence of Ram Vilas Paswan’s son and party parliamentary committee president Chirag Paswan, had said that the LJP and RLSP should get 140 seats while the BJP should field candidates in 103 constituencies. At that time, he also claimed that the LJP had contested 75 seats in the 2010 Assembly elections and either won or came second in 52.
In the Lok Sabha election, the BJP contested 30 seats, the LJP seven and the RLSP three in Bihar. Of these, the BJP won 22, the LJP six and the RLSP all three.
The BJP’s reluctance to give the RLSP more than 15 seats – as against the demanded 40 – is likely to intensify the bickering within the NDA, a senior LJP leader said. “We are closely monitoring the initial exchanges between the BJP and RLSP on sharing of seats,” the leader added.
Despite the BJP’s rigid stance, sources in the RLSP said the party is determined to widen its base in the state and will “do everything to get a respectable” share of seats from the saffron party. What has boosted its morale is the relative success of its rally in Patna’s Gandhi Maidan on April 5.