New Delhi: Responding to Prashant Kishor's claim that JD(U)- BJP should not contest the state elections under the current Lok Sabha seat-sharing formula, BJP MP Gopal Narayan Singh said that his statements are 'confusing' and 'unsuitable'.
Speaking to ETV Bharat, Rajya Sabha MP said that it is not sure whether Prashant Kishor is taking on behalf of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.
"The JD(U) has flipped in the past. They broke away from the alliance, joined hands with Congress and again came out of the grand alliance," he said.
"The present seat-sharing formula is working. We should still with 50:50 formula. I don't find a reason to change this," he added.
Earlier, Janata Dal (United) national vice president Prashant Kishor contended that his party, being the senior partner in the NDA in Bihar, should contest more seats than the BJP in the assembly election next year.
The two parties had contested an equal number of seats in the Lok Sabha elections this year. "If we look at the 2010 assembly polls, which the JD(U) and the BJP had last contested together, the ratio was 1:1.4. Even if there is a slight change this time, it cannot be that both parties fight an equal number of seats," Kishor had said.
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"The JD(U) is a bigger party, has close to 70 MLAs while the BJP has just over 50. Moreover, the assembly elections are to be fought with Nitish Kumar as the NDA face," Kishor said reiterating the need for a new alliance formula with BJP.
In 2014, the BJP had contested with the LJP and Upendra Kushwaha's RLSP and the coalition had won 31 out of 40 seats in Bihar with the saffron party alone bagging 22. The JD(U) had fought alone and got only two. The remaining seven were grabbed by the RJD-Congress-NCP combine. RLSP left the NDA last year and is now a part of the five-party Grand Alliance.
