PATNA: Having been turned down by Congress and Lalu Prasad ’s RJD on seat arrangement for the Lok Sabha elections, LJP chief Ramvilas Paswan is considering joining hands with BJP in Bihar, in what will be a political coup for the Narendra Modi campaign as well as a boost for its effort to bag the majority of 40 seats in the state.

Paswan buffed his “secular” credentials domestically and abroad by describing his resignation from the Vajpayee government in April 2002 as a protest against the Modi regime’s failure to control the post-Godhra conflagration. He had also demanded that Modi be sacked and President’s rule imposed in Gujarat.

Paswan’s close colleague Surajbhan Singh told PTI on Sunday, “Alliance between LJP and BJP has been finalized.” Paswan’s son Chirag, however, denied that the alliance had been sealed but stopped short of ruling it out. “As of now, I can say there is no truth in the reports that LJP is entering into an alliance with BJP. But the final decision will be taken by the party president,” Chirag told TOI.

However, RJD MP and Lalu Prasad’s trusted confidant Ramkripal Yadav acknowledged that seat-sharing talks between Congress-RJD on the one hand and LJP have failed. According to Yadav, LJP was insisting on nine of the 40 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar.

“RJD president Lalu Prasad offered LJP five seats. Congress wants 15 seats and the NCP has claimed two. If we give nine seats to LJP, our workers, who have struggled for the last several years, will get disheartened. We have to keep our party’s strength in mind to ensure the communal forces’ defeat. Laluji tried to convince him but it did not work,” Yadav said, adding there was no communication between the two for the last few days.

Sources in the BJP also said the talks being handled by BJP general secretary Dharmendra Pradhan and former civil aviation minister Shahnawaz Hussain might fructify shortly if Paswan accepts BJP’s “final” offer of seven seats.

LJP, which started by demanding 12 seats, has climbed down, but is insisting on 8-9 seats, saying that was its bottom line.

While Paswan made himself scarce, LJP sources said he was likely to hold talks with BJP president Rajnath Singh and the party’s PM pick Narendra Modi soon.

The Paswan community, which accounts for 4-5% of Bihar’s population, is spread across the state, and has been fanatically loyal to Ramvilas, helping him become one of the few leaders who can transfer votes to whosoever he chooses to align with.

Paswan, who was unsuccessfully wooed by JD(U), opened negotiations with BJP after Congress and Lalu did not agree to spare more than five seats for him. LJP circles have also noted the timing of the CBI decision to open an inquiry into Paswan’s alleged involvement in the illegal recruiting scam at Bokaro steel plant. BJP leader and former deputy CM Sushil Modi slammed CBI’s move as political intimidation. “The government is threatening Paswan with CBI,” the former deputy CM said.

Paswan was steel minister under UPA-1.

“The LJP president is unhappy about strains over seat-sharing. The party is fighting for its existence as it had lost all the seats it contested in 2009. Since then, the party’s strength has improved and it has genuine claim on nine seats,” said a source close to Paswan. Another LJP source told TOI that there was an attempt by RJD to marginalize LJP in Bihar.

His son and heir apparent Chirag, who controls LJP’s policy issues, favours an alliance with the BJP. Although Paswan is yet to take the final call, Chirag is learnt to be leaning on him to take the “vital decision immediately as further delay may affect campaigning”.

An alliance with Paswan will help BJP’s objective to get the majority of 120 Lok Sabha seats from UP and Bihar. Upper castes are supposed to be strongly rooting for Modi. There are also indications that the appeal of BJP’s PM candidate as the first “backward” to have emerged as a realistic contender for prime minister may have seeped among the “backward castes”. The addition of Paswan may result in a formidable rainbow coalition.

It might also affect the objective of RJD-Congress to attract Muslim votes by raising doubts about their capacity to deny seats from Bihar, raising the prospect of Nitish Kumar’s JD(U) emerging as the rival pole of attraction for the minority community in many seats.