Patna: Bickering among the ruling NDA partners in Bihar over seat sharing has come to the fore, even though the BJP, which held a meeting on Wednesday on the issue, claimed that everything is fine in the alliance.
Union minister Jitan Ram Manjhi said that he was “requesting and not making a claim” that his Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) be given a respectable number of seats, otherwise the party might not contest the election.
Another Union minister Chirag Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas), which had earlier settled for around 20-22 seats, is now asking for at least 25 more.
The Assembly elections will be held on November 6 and 11 in the state, while votes will be counted on November 14.
At a time when the BJP’s Election Committee meeting to discuss the seat sharing arrangements among the NDA constituents was on in Patna, Manjhi told reporters: “It will be a humiliation for me and my party, if we are not given at least 15 seats in the coming assembly polls. If we get 15, we can easily win at least 8-9 seats and will become a recognised party”.
Even after 10 years of establishment, HAM remains an unrecognised party. “I have been helping the NDA for a long time. So, I am requesting the NDA leaders and not making a claim. My party would prefer not to contest the polls, if we don’t get a respectable number of seats. But, I must make it clear that even if we don’t contest polls, we will keep working for the NDA partners in the polls,” Manjhi said.