Kushwaha’s party, BJP hold seat-sharing talks

PATNA: In the run-up to the Bihar assembly polls, initial seat-sharing talks between BJP and the Upendra Kushwaha-led RLSP have begun. Party insiders confirmed the development but said that no conditions have been put formally by either side.
Sources said that if things moved smoothly, the agreement reached over the seats to be shared by RLSP would be in the public domain “in the next one or two days”.The seat-sharing formula will be resolved in Delhi, said a source.
Replying to the query on how many seats RLSP has demanded, the source said, “It is too early to say how many seats would be given to RLSP. An initial round of talks has been held and will continue further. In two days, we will be able to say anything concrete on the matter (sic). In politics, doors are not closed.”
Chief election commissioner Sunil Arora had announced the Bihar assembly election schedule on Friday, and said that the notification for the first phase would be issued on October 1.
At the state BJP headquarters, Union minister and BJP publicity in-charge Ravi Shankar Prasad did not divulge any details when asked if the outcome of the seat-sharing talks among the NDA partners would be known before October 1.
Kushwaha had quit the grand alliance (mahagathbandhan) this week due to delay in seat-sharing talks with RJD. The unstated reason, as political observers said, was that Kushwaha had demanded 36 seats to contest, but RJD was willing to concede only 12.
Going by that, BJP may not offer RLSP more than 10 seats in the elections, while it had contested 22 seats in the 2015 assembly election as an NDA partner, observers felt.