The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday made it clear that Nitish Kumar will be Chief Minister 'whatever may be the outcome in terms of numbers' post-Assembly elections in Bihar.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Rajendra Singh on Tuesday joined the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP). Singh joined the LJP in presence of party's national president Chirag Paswan in Delhi, news agency ANI reported.
The Lok Janshakti Party's decision on Sunday to walk out of the National Democratic Alliance in Bihar has upended conventional wisdom and thrown open new possibilities in the three-phase assembly elections starting from October 28.
BJP President J P Nadda said on Sunday that all three NDA constituents in Bihar, the JD(U), LJP and his party, will fight the coming assembly polls in the state together with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar as the face of the alliance, and expressed confidence that it will emerge victorious.
LJP chief Chiag Paswan had earlier announced that his party will not ally with the BJP on 50 out of 81 seats in the Jharkhand assembly polls.
The BJP received a setback on Monday when its Jharkhand ally AJSU unilaterally announced a number of candidates, including against senior saffron party leaders.
Of the 36 political parties, whose representatives were elected to the 17th Lok Sabha, 15 got fewer votes than NOTA. Many of these parties contested only a handful of seats.
According to the agreement, the Janata Dal-United (JD-U) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will contest 17 seats each while the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) will contest from six seats.
BJP ally and Lok Janshakti Party president Ram Vilas Paswan said the opposition of Lalu Prasad's RJD to the legislation for 10 per cent reservation for the general category poor will lead to its rout in Bihar in Lok Sabha polls and that it will not be able to win a single seat.
As per the deal, LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan may get a Rajya Sabha berth. The party may also get a seat in Jharkhand.
Lok Sabha elections 2019: In 2014, the Janata Dal-United (JD-U) had contested on its own but performed poorly. It had won only two seats.
An hour-long meeting between top BJP leaders, including its president Amit Shah and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, and LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan and his son Chirag remained inconclusive, sources indicated.
Lok Sabha elections 2019: He said Chirag Paswan's tweets reflected the party's sentiments and the seat-sharing formula must be timely and respectable.
Lok Sabha elections 2019: 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.
In a series of tweets in Hindi, Chirag, who represents Bihar's Jamui constituency in Lok Sabha, pointed out that NDA is going through a sensitive phase after the exit of RLSP and Chandrababu Naidu's Telugu Desam Party (TDP).
A speculation had been rife that the BJP and the JDU could field their candidates on 34 out of the total 40 seats in Bihar, leaving the rest for the Lok Janshakti Party and the Rashtriya Lok Samata Party.
The BJP, the LJP and the RLSP had contested 30, seven and three seats of the 40 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar in 2014 and won 22, six and three of them respectively.
The MP from Jamuai in Bihar said misconception was being spread by Congress and other opposition parties that the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government was against SC/ST communities.
Chirag Paswan said patience of many within the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) was running thin as circumstances raising concerns of the Dalits and tribals have emerged of late.
Amid growing speculation that RLSP chief and Union Minister Upender Kushwaha might follow in the footsteps of the Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) and dump the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), Kushwaha said it is baseless and far from the truth.
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