Bihar polls: BJP-JD(U) seat-sharing talks next week

BJP is readying for the big battle of Bihar as the party’s state executive committee meets in Patna today (August 22) to finalise its seat-sharing strategy with allies.

The top BJP and Janata Dal (United) leaders will hold parleys in Patna next week to finalise the seat-sharing formula for the upcoming assembly elections. BJP national president JP Nadda, BJP’s Bihar election in-charge Devendra Fadnavis, state in-charge Bhupendra Yadav along with chief minister Nitish Kumar will attend the meeting.

The state assembly polls are likely to be held in October-November.

Simmering differences between JD(U) and Lok Janshakti Party (LJP), the other NDA constituent, have made it absolutely necessary for BJP to sort out the alliance issues and decide the seats at the earliest.

“This (state executive committee) is an important meeting which will begin with the address of Fadnavis. A political resolution will be passed on the first day and party national president [Nadda] will address the meeting on the concluding day,” said state BJP president Sanjay Jaiswal.

BJP leaders are of the opinion that after distributing seats among allies, the BJP and JD(U) should get the remaining on the 50-50 basis as was the case during the 2019 national polls. HAM-S [Hindustani Awam Morcha], which is likely to align with the JD (U), is likely to get seven seats, which leaves 115 seats for the JD(U). Nitish Kumar is not willing to leave any seats for the LJP. In that case, the BJP will have to adjust LJP, which is demanding no less than 42 seats.

Bihar elections are the first since the Covid pandemic broke out. The Election Commission has released a set of broad guidelines for holding elections during such a crisis.

BJP is desperate to win Bihar polls after it lost power in Maharashtra and Jharkhand, immediately after winning the Lok Sabha elections in 2019.