Paswan's LJP unhappy with NDA
Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) on Wednesday pressed for finalisation of the coalition's seat-sharing arrangement in Bihar by month-end. A key constituent of the ruling NDA, LJP made it clear that it will not agree for anything less than six Lok Sabha seats and one in Rajya Sabha. The assertion was made by LJP's state president Pashupati Kumar Paras, younger brother of the party chief and union minister Ram Vilas Paswan.
Interestingly, on Tuesday, the party's parliamentary board chairman Chirag Paswan expressed dissatisfaction over no headway being made on the seat-sharing issue despite several meetings with the BJP leaders.
Paras said, in Bihar, with the exit of partners like Jitan Ram Manjhi and Upendra Kushwaha, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has "undoubtedly" weakened.
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Kushwaha parted ways after he ran out of patience, as BJP chief Amit Shah and JD(U) chief Nitish Kumar made an announcement that their parties would contest an equal number of seats without taking into account that there were other constituents, said Paras.
Ideally, all NDA partners should have sat together and arrived at a seat-sharing formula through consensus, he said.
What would be left for other allies following a decision by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Janata Dal (United) deciding to fight on an equal number of seats in the Lok Sabha elections 2019, he asked.
"Lack of clarity on the issue led to the RLSP's exit. A final decision on sharing of seats among the remaining allies must be arrived at by December 31," said Paras, who is also a member of the Nitish Kumar cabinet in the state.
He said Chirag Paswan's tweets reflected the party's sentiments and the seat-sharing formula must be timely and respectable.
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.
His tweets have triggered speculations that the party, which was part of the Congress-led UPA for a decade before switching over to the BJP-led coalition during the 2014 polls, was bracing for changing sides yet again.
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(With PTI inputs)
