New Delhi: LJP, which has been sulking over the seat sharing deal in the NDA in Bihar, on Tuesday came out in the open with “discontent” over the formula adopted yesterday and what was promised to them earlier.
“There is no smoke without fire,” Chirag Paswan, LJP Parliamentary Board chairman and son of party president Ram Vilas Paswan, told reporters after a midnight meeting with BJP chief Amit Shah. On record, Chirag, however, made it clear that LJP will continue in the NDA, which will remain “intact”. Shah had yesterday announced a seat sharing formula for Bihar assembly elections under which the alliance spearhead will contest 160 of the state’s 243 seats, LJP 40, RLSP 23 and HAM 20.
“There was no anger but discontent as there was a difference between the seat sharing formula we were told about earlier and what was announced yesterday. So we were taken aback. “We were not angry but definitely there were concerns in the party. We were shocked.
There is no smoke without fire,” Chirag said. Though he did not give details of what transpired at his meeting with Shah, he said,”We have apprised the BJP chief of our concerns. We are happy that our concerns have been honoured and we are moving towards a solution.”
He refused to clarify if LJP would get some additional seats as part of a ‘solution’ to its concerns. Chirag said Shah reminded him about “compulsions in a coalition” and assured him he would try to “accomodate” the concerns voiced by LJP “as much as possible”.
Describing HAM and RLSP as “family”, he said, “There is no reason–number of seats or anything else–due to which LJP would part ways with the BJP. There is no question of any dispute with Manjhi ji as his party cannot be given seats under any formula as he had neither contested Lok Sabha nor state Assemly polls in past. “We are happy with whatever seats he has got. Our concern was that LJP should also have got seats on the basis of the formula under which RLSP got 23 seats,” he said.
Notwithstanding Shah’s claim at the time of announcing the seat sharing arrangement that there was “no tug of war” and “no tension” among NDA partners over the number of seats each would contest, discontent has been brewing in LJP over allotment of 40 seats to it.
LJP sources said there is a feeling in the party that Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) of former chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi and RLSP of Union minister Upendra Kushwaha had got a “better deal” which was disproportionate to their political strength in the state. (PTI)
