Just two months are left for the Bihar Assembly elections to commence, and the seat-sharing talks in both BJP and Congress-led coalition camps are facing a major hurdle.
Fractures have started to emerge in the BJP-led NDA, after Chief Minister Nitish Kumar unilaterally announced a candidate for the Rajpur seat.
This development took place even as the BJP and Nitish-led JDU are yet to finalise the number of seats each party would contest on.
It is being hinted that Nitish wants to stick to the 2020 seat-sharing formula, which saw JDU contesting in more seats than the BJP, despite winning fewer seats.
Notably, in the 2020 assembly elections, the JDU won only 43 seats against the BJP’s 74 out of the 243 assembly seats.
BJP downplay Nitish's move
But both the BJP and the JDU downplayed Nitish’s announcement.
JDU spokesperson Neeraj Kumar said that Rajpur was a stronghold of the party, while BJP’s Manoj Sharma said the announcement was within Nitish’s prerogative.
The move is expected to cause fissures within the alliance, as allies Chirag Paswan-led Lok Janshakti Party, Jitan Ram Manjhi-led Hindustani Awam Morcha and Upendra Kushwaha’s Rashtiya Lok Morcha have been seeking more seats for themselves.
The NDA partners are expected to finalise the seat-sharing formula soon after the September 9 Vice Presidential elections.
Not only the BJP, the Congress-led INDIA bloc is also facing a similar problem.
Headache for Congress
The seat-sharing talks have become complicated in the six-party alliance following the addition of two more political parties.
There are currently six parties in Bihar's grand alliance— Lalu Yadav's RJD, the Congress, CPI, CPM and Vikassheel Insaan Party.
Now, the JMM party and the Pashupati Paras-led LJP faction have also joined it.
The opposition is in a fix over allocating 243 assembly seats among the 8 parties.
It is believed that Congress wants to contest in at least 70 seats, while the RJD is unwilling to fight on fewer than 150 seats.
Following a meeting on Saturday, Congress’ Bihar unit president Rajesh Ram said that all parties must give up some of their seats and adjust with the rest of the alliance parties.
