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Updated: Dec 29, 2018 00:36 IST

The BJP has been pressurised by its NDA partners in Bihar - Nitish Kumar and Ram Vilas Paswan - to give their parties more Lok Sabha seats in the 2019 elections, opposition leaders Tejashwi Yadav and Upendra Kushwaha alleged on Sunday.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Nitish Kumar-led Janata Dal (United) will contest on 17 seats each out of the 40 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar, while Ram Vilas Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party will contest the remaining 6, the NDA leaders said at a press conference at BJP chief Amit Shah’s residence in New Delhi.

Kushwaha, who led his Rashtriya Lok Samta Party (RLSP) out of the NDA over seat allocation for 2019 and joined the opposition ‘Mahagatbandhan’ earlier this week, alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had succumbed to the demands of Nitish Kumar.

In a veiled dig at PM Modi, Kushwaha told ANI that it seems that ‘the one with the 56-inch chest’ had bowed his head before Nitish Kumar and agreed to contest an equal number of seats. “What difference does it make to the people,” he asked.

Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav also took a jibe at the BJP for agreeing to contest only 17 seats in Bihar in the Lok Sabha polls next year, despite having won 22 in the last general election.

The leader of the opposition in the state assembly also alleged that the BJP gave in to arm-twisting by Nitish Kumar and Paswan.

“After stealing the mandate (of the 2015 assembly elections), the BJP has become so strong that even with 22 sitting MPs, it will contest 17 seats (in 2019) and Nitishji, with 2 seats, will now fight 17. Understand what dire straits the NDA is in,” he said in a tweet.

Ending its 17-year-old alliance with the NDA, the JD(U) had contested 2014 Lok Sabha polls alone. Following its poor performance, it forged the ‘mahagathbandhan’ with the RJD and the Congress and the alliance achieved a handsome victory in 2015 Bihar assembly polls.

Nitish Kumar walked out of the alliance last year following corruption allegations against Yadav, his then deputy, and then stitched a new alliance with the BJP.