lok-sabha-elections

Updated: Jan 22, 2019 23:36 IST

A month after announcing a seat-sharing pact, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its Bihar ally Janata Dal (United) will start identifying their constituencies for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls and the exercise will be completed before the proposed rally of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) partners in Patna on March 3, according to two leaders from these parties.

The BJP and the JD(U) had on December 23 announced they would contest 17 seats each, leaving the rest 6 for the Ram Vilas Paswan-led Lok Janshakti Party. Bihar has a total 40 Lok Sabha seats.

“We have almost identified the seats the LJP will contest in. We are working on the remaining 34 that will be shared between the BJP and the JD(U) in equal proportion,” a close aide of Bihar chief minister and JD(U) president Nitish Kumar said. “We hope to complete this exercise before the joint rally in Patna.”

The second leader quoted in this story, who belongs to the BJP, said there were about half a dozen seats where the “interest” of the two parties might clash. “But, we do not see much problem in sorting out the issue,” he said. The Patliputra seat in the state capital Patna, which is currently held by the BJP, is one such constituency where the JD(U) also wants to field its own candidate.

The JD(U) wants to retain two seats it won in the last election, besides the four where it came in second. The JD(U) stood third in 29 seats, but polled more than 2 lakh votes in four of these.

“We won 20 Lok Sabha seats in 2009. We have strong candidates in as many seats,” the JD(U) leader said, speaking on the condition of anonymity. “Even some BJP MPs who expect they will be denied tickets are in touch with us.”

The JD(U) has constituted a team of three leaders to identify the seats and prospective candidate. The JD(U) leader claims that Nitish Kumar wants to field a couple of young leaders and some prominent faces to create a buzz.

The JD(U) had an alliance with the Communist Party of India in 2014 parliamentary election. While the latter fielded candidates in 38 out of 40 seats, it won just 2.

The BJP had fielded candidates in 30 seats, and won 22 in last parliamentary election. It has agreed to contest in 17 seats this time — which means the BJP will have to sacrifice at least 5 seats it won in 2014.

“A meeting of the senior leaders of the two parties is likely to happen on this issue after the budget session,” said the BJP leader quoted above.