After many speculations on the NDA alliance in Bihar, BJP President Amit Shah finally announced the seat sharing of allies in Bihar for upcoming Lok-Sabha elections. During the announcement, CM Nitish Kumar, RLD leaders Ram Vilas Paswan and his son Chirag Paswan were also present.
BJP President Amit Shah: BJP will fight at 17 seats, Janata Dal (United) at 17 and Lok Janshakti Party at 6 seats in Bihar in upcoming 2019 Lok Sabha elections pic.twitter.com/58hBFvCABr
— ANI (@ANI) December 23, 2018
CM Nitish Kumar’s JDU which re-joined NDA this year will fight on 17 seats out of 40. Lok Jansjkati Party (LJP) headed by Ram Vilas Paswan, will fight on 6 seats and also reportedly get one seat in Rajya Sabha. BJP will contest only on 17 seats, while it had won 22 seats in Bihar out of 30 they contested in 2014 Lok Sabha elections. However, it has not been decided what seats will go to which party.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar after announcing seat sharing for 2019 general elections: We are committed to development in Bihar. We are of the opinion that the Ram Mandir matter should be solved through a court decision. pic.twitter.com/bOvRDLhz1z
— ANI (@ANI) December 23, 2018
All eyes were set on LJP’s seat-share, as the party had expressed discontent towards NDA over the past few days. Party had demanded more share of seats after Rashtriya Lok Samata Party leader (RLSP) joined UPA alliance in Bihar along with RJD. However, after the announcement, he said that all the discontent and disagreement have been resolved and thanked Amit Shah and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, for resolving them.
The NDA alliance announcement in Bihar, was a response to the UPA alliance, made by Congress, RJD and Jitan Ram Manji’s Hindustan Ava Party, and Upendra Kushwaha’s RLSP who has recently defected from NDA.