The Opposition parties of Bihar - Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Congress and Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) - are scheduled to meet in New Delhi on Thursday evening to chalk out plans for 2019 Lok Sabha elections and challenge the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA). Former Union minister Upendra Kushwaha's Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP), which had recently broken ties with the BJP, may join the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) and a formal announcement in this regard is likely to be made after the meeting later today.
Ahead of the meeting, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav tried to lure Lok Jan Shakti Party (LJP) to walk out of the NDA to join the Mahagathbandhan. Referring to LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan as his 'guardian', Tejashwi said if Paswan's party wasn't happy with the BJP's way of handling things in the alliance, it should walk out of it.
"Things will be clear by evening, you'll get to know. Have invited people in past too. We have invited Upendra Kushwaha ji. There have been attempts to crush regional parties, even LJP isn't happy with Modi ji's faction and that proves the fact,"Tejashwi told reporters.
Tejashwi's statement concerning LJP was in the wake of LJP leader and Ram Vilas Paswan's son Chirag asking the BJP to resolve seat sharing issues for next year's general elections 'before it was too late'.
Chirag Paswan had expressed dissatisfaction over no headway being made on the seat-sharing issue despite several meetings with the BJP leaders.
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LJP has made it clear that it will not agree for anything less than six Lok Sabha seats and one in Rajya Sabha.
In a series of tweets, Chirag Paswan had on Tuesday cautioned the BJP against damage to the NDA in the event of the BJP's failure to arrive at a seat-sharing formula that was respectable for other allies.
The NDA had swept the Lok Sabha elections in 2014, winning 31 of the state's 40 seats.
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