Seat-Sharing Deadlock In NDA Persists As Chirag Paswan Pushes For Key Bihar Seats: Report

Scaling down his initial demand of 40 seats, Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) chief Chirag Paswan has now proposed 35 seats to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for the upcoming Bihar Assembly polls, The Indian Express reported, citing sources.

The BJP, however, has reportedly offered 26 seats to its NDA ally, along with the promise of one MLC and one Rajya Sabha seat in the future.

Chirag-led LJP (RV) has been firm about securing at least two seats each in the five Lok Sabha constituencies — Hajipur, Jamui, Vaishali, Khagaria, and Samastipur — which the party won last year.

A deadlock reportedly also persists over LJP (RV)’s demand to contest sitting seats of allies, including Govindganj, Matihani, and Sikandara, currently held by the BJP, Janata Dal (United), and Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) respectively.

The LJP (RV) reportedly wants Govindganj for its state president, Raju Tiwari, and seeks the Brahmpur seat to field party leader Hulas Pandey, while the BJP prefers Santosh Rai for the constituency.

Chirag’s list also includes Mahnar and Mahua (Hajipur), Morwa (Samastipur), Alauli (Khagaria), Bhagalpur Sadar, Bakhtiyarpur, and Fatuha (Patna), Atri (Gaya), Obra (Aurangabad), plus Sheikhpura, Arwal, and Jehanabad.

“Even though we have scaled down from our original demand, we have been pushing for winnable seats, especially where we did very well despite contesting alone," a LJP (RV) source was quoted as saying by IE.

Chirag’s confidence stems from winning all five Lok Sabha seats the party contested last year.

The JD (U) and the BJP are most likely to contest on at least 100 seats each.

Rashtriya Lok Morcha may accept fewer than 10 seats, while Manjhi remains firm on his demand of 15 seats, stating he would not contest otherwise.

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