Patna: With less than a month left for the voting in Bihar assembly election, confusion prevails over the seat-sharing in both camps. Be it NDA or Mahagathbandhan, the issue of seat-sharing has not yet settled down leaving the candidates in an awkward situation.
Leaders of NDA and Mahagathbandhan claimed to resolve the issue but it does not seem to be an easy task while looking at the present scenario of Bihar politics. Two days back, JD(U) president Nitish Kumar while talking to reporters at Karpoori Sabhagar said that seat-sharing would be done soon.
However, the way LJP has taken its stand against Nitish, it seems that the party may not be allies of NDA in days to come. There is a cold war going on between two allies of NDA – JDU and LJP and rift is visible now. Both are not in the mood to compromise over seat-sharing issues.
LJP has already made up their mind to field candidates in 143 assembly constituencies and their party leaders have been giving such statements since long now. Sources in the party said that LJP chief Chirag Paswan is really upset over the way Nitish spoke about his father's health.
A few days back, reporters asked Nitish that Ram Vilas was keeping unwell these days, on which he had replied that he was unaware about his health. Nitish's statement comes at a time when Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah had inquired about Ram Vilas's health.
Another reason behind the delay in seat-sharing is the division of 51 seats between JDU and BJP as both parties contested against each other in the 2015 assembly election. BJP insiders claimed that the division of seats should take place on the basis of vote share. Apart from this many RJD MLAs who earlier defeated the candidates of BJP and LJP have joined JD(U). It is tough for Nitish to accommodate those MLA's who have shifted their loyalties from RJD to JDU.
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The similar situation is visible in Mahagathbandhan as well, RLSP chief Upendra Kushwaha has openly declared that he will not accept the leadership of Tejashwi Prasad Yadav. Kushwaha's exit is certain now.
Former CM Jitan Ram Manjhi of HAM party has already deserted RJD and joined hands with NDA in Bihar. On other hand, Congress too has taken bold steps by declaring that that party will contest on all 243 seats if they are not offered a respectful seat.
Avinash Pandey, chief of Congress screening committee of Bihar was in Patna and he made this statement in front of the media when a question was asked about seat-sharing.
Another player of Mahagathbandhan, VIP led by Mukesh Sahni is upset over the delay, he too had threatened to make an exit if a respectful seat was not offered to his party along with the post of deputy CM.
The situation is very different from 2015 as JDU was part of Mahagathbandhan and now it has returned to NDA. Going by the last year seat sharing of NDA, BJP had contested on 157 seats, LJP 42, RSLP 23 and HAM 21. However, BJP won just 53 seats, LJP and RLSP won two seats each and HAM one seat.
Similarly in Mahagathbandhan, RJD and JDU had contested on 101 seats each leaving 41 seats for Congress. Mahagathbandhan had formed the government in Bihar with RJD emerging single largest party with 80 seats followed by JDU 71 and Congress 27.
Many sitting MLAs are under fear of losing tickets this time in the changed scenario and leaders of respective political parties are equally afraid to face their anger. Leaders of both the ruling and opposition party claimed that several rounds of talk has taken place between the allies but so far nothing has come into public domain except bitterness. It would be interesting to see how things unfold and confusion gets resolved in days to come as politics in Bihar has entered into the crucial phase of seat-sharing.
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