Bharatiya Janata Party and Janata Dal (United) will be contesting in seventeen seats each in Bihar while the Lok Janshakti Party of Ram Vilas Paswan to have candidates for remaining six seats.
Announcing the seat sharing on Sunday the BJP president Amit Shah said NDA will send Paswan, who is also a Cabinet minister in the Modi government, to Rajya Sabha at the earliest opportunity.
The arrangement seems a kind of victory for the LJP, which wanted a better bargain from the BJP following exit of RLSP party of Upendra Kushwaha from the ruling alliance.
Bihar has forty Lok Sabha seats and Shah said NDA will be able to win more than 31 of those in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
Talking to the press the JD(U) president and Bihar CM Nitish Kumar said, “We have been with BJP since 2009. Our stand is clear. It has to be resolved either by a court decision or by mutual understanding.”
JD(U) fought the 2014 elections independently and won two seats. The LJP went with BJP and grabbed six seats. BJP won 22 seats.
Thanking finance minister Arun Jaitley for helping to bring peace between his party NJP the LJP chief said Modi government will again be formed in 2019.
Nitish Kumar reminded NDA won 32 seats in Bihar in 2009. Currently he is enjoying good equations with Paswan.
He added that NDA will be doing better than that of 2009 in this 2019 general elections.
Kumar thanked BJP for his decision to send Paswan to Rajya Sabha saying it is a recognition to his long service to India.
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