New Delhi: Hours after BJP-JD(U) announced seat-sharing deal, in a significant development, Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP) chief and Union Minister Upendra Kushwaha met RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav. They had a brief meeting and even posed for the media. The timing of the meeting is significant as most pundits believe RLSP will be given only 2 out of 40 seats by BJP-JD(U), a deal which they may find unacceptable.
Later speaking to media about his meeting with Tejashwi Yadav, Union Minister Kushwaha dubbed it as 'coincidence'. However, he said that nothing has been finalised about final seat sharing Nothing is final on seat sharing and remarked, " Amit Shah ji also said that we will finalise it in a few days".
Earlier, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah on Friday announced that his party and Janata Dal (United), the key ally of NDA, would contest in equal number of seats for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections in 2019.
Shah, who ended the month-long speculation, announced the decision in presence of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.
Although the BJP chief did not announce the distribution of seats, he said that the two parties would contest the polls from an equal number of seats in the state and the exact number of seats would be revealed after two or three days.
The BJP president also made it very clear that Upendra Kushwaha and Ram Vilas Paswan would also remain with them as allies of the NDA in Bihar.
In reply to a question as how much seats would be offered to Kushwaha and Paswan, Shah said that it would be announced later. While assuring that other allies would also get a respectable number of seats, Shah said, "When a new partner joins, you have to sacrifice... There
will be a reduction in seats for everyone." Shah also underscored that there was a consensus among the four NDA partners in Bihar on this principle.
Hailing the decision, JD(U) spokesperson Neeraj Kumar said, "The decision to contest in the equal number of seats by both the key allies is a respect to the belief of workers of both the parties. Similarly, giving political importance to other two partners presents an exemplary political understanding among NDA allies."
"It's a 'political slap' on the faces of leaders in the opposition who were spreading rumours about differences in the allies of the NDA," he said.
Bihar sends 40 members to the Lok Sabha that will need to be split between the four partners of the NDA for next year's general elections. Ram Vilas Paswan's Lok Janshakti Party and Upendra Kushwaha's Rashtriya Lok Samta Party are the two other partners in the state.
The JD(U) contested the 2014 elections separately and managed to win just two Lok Sabha seats. The three other NDA allies in the state won 31 out of the 40 seats in that election.
The JD(U), which was part of the opposition Grand Alliance in 2015 state assembly elections, had won 71 of the 101 seats it contested, while the BJP emerged victorious in 53 out of 157 seats in which it fielded candidates.
Nitish Kumar - whose party won only two seats in 2014 after a split with the BJP - had long demanded parity on seats with the BJP, which won 22 seats. Later, his party said they want a "respectable" number of seats and that stand appears to have been recalibrated.