The Bharatiya Janata Party will contest on 17 seats in Bihar, while National Democratic Alliance (NDA) ally Janata Dal (United) will contest on 16 seats, BJP national general secretary Vinod Tawde announced on Monday. Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas), headed by Chirag Paswan, will contest on five seats.
“BJP will contest on 17 seats, JDU on 16 seats, LJP (Ram Vilas) on 5 seats, Hindustani Awam Morcha and Rashtriya Lok Morcha on one seat each…” Tawde was quoted.
The LJP faction led by Chirag Paswan’s uncle Pashupati Paras — who landed a cabinet berth after splitting the party three years ago — is not part of the NDA. The Paras faction was dropped after it became clear that Chirag Paswan’s unit had complete command over the Paswan vote. The community comprises 6 per cent of the voting population.
The BJP has taken Nawada — a stronghold of the LJP — and has given Sheohar to Mr Kumar’s JD(U) in place of Gaya and Karakat. The JD(U) has also got Kishanganj, which it lost to the Congress last time.
Even in 2019, the two parties, after a silent and bitter face-off, had decided on a 50:50 formula and contested on equal number of seats.
The division was 17 seats each for the BJP and Mr Kumar’s Janata Dal United and six for Lok Janshakti Party, then led by Chirag Paswan’s father Ram Vilas Paswan. Mr Kumar, who changed camp after being upset over multiple issues in the INDIA bloc, has said he would now stay with the NDA “forever”.
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