The dispute among National Democratic Alliance (NDA) constituent parties over seat sharing in Bihar has come to an end. The BJP and the JD (U) would contest on 17 seats each and Ram-Vilas Paswan LJP would contest from six seats in the crucial 2019 Lok Sabha elections. It has been also decided that one Rajya Sabha seat would be allocated to the LJP.
On Sunday, the BJP President Amit Shah told media, “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.” He also said, “The seat sharing deal has been reached after keeping in mind the ground realities, the political situation of each seat in the state and the NDA’s strength.” Amit Shah claimed, “We will win more seats in Bihar in the 2019 elections than we had won in 2014.” This announcement was made at BJP chief Amit Shah’s residence in New Delhi. Bihar chief minister and Janata Dal United chief Nitish Kumar, Lok Janshakti Party chief Ram Vilas Paswan was present as Amit Shah made the announcement.
The arrangement has been finalized after a meeting presided over by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) MP Chirag Paswan on Friday. The LJP had raised the new demands after two seats of RLSP fell vacant as Upendra Kushwaha decided to break from NDA and went on to join the Congress led ‘Mahagathbandhan’, which disturbed the status quo. The concerns were resolved when Arun Jaitley intervened in the matter and all the concerned parties came to a new agreement. “We had a successful discussion and we are talking. We are confident of a positive outcome,” said Chirag Paswan coming out of the meeting with finance minister Arun Jaitley. And, now the BJP took care of LJP’s concerns and has allocated six seats to the party.
In 2014 Lok Sabha elections, BJP-LJP-RLSP alliance had emerged victorious on 31 Lok Sabha seats. The BJP had won 22 seats, while the LJP won six seats and the Rashtriya Lok Samta Party (RLSP), which is now a part of Mahagathbandhan (Grand Alliance) had emerged victorious on six seats.
The LJP emerged victorious on six out of seven seats with a vote percentage of 6.50 in 2014 general elections, while the RLSP won three seats with 3.04% votes. Besides, Paswan enjoys strong clout among the Dalits and Mahadalits, which constitue 16% of Bihar’s population.
The decision of Ram Vilas Paswan to stick to NDA also signifies the point that NDA is going to win the Lok Sabha election of 2019. Mr. Paswan is not the one to sit in a sinking ship and that can be gauged from the fact that he stuck with UPA for 10 long years and right before 2014, switched to the NDA. Paswan simply cannot be kept in an alliance if he is not sure of winning. Number of seats offered matter only when Paswan is sure about the winnability of the alliance. Ram Vilas Paswan is a living walking opinion poll, which has never went wrong.