NEW DELHI: On a day when the Congress expanded its Bihar mahagathbandhan with the induction of RLSP chief Upendra Kushwaha and former state chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi, BJP chief Amit Shah spoke to the grumbling leadership of the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) to keep the truncated NDA intact.
The recent BJP rout in three Hindi heartland states appears to have made the LJP, which has a history of bolting on poll eve, go for the saffron party’s jugular. Though a broad seat adjustment deal among the NDA allies has been finalised, the LJP is apparently keeping its options open for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
The day began with Shah sending BJP national general secretary Bhupendra Yadav to the residence of Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan to make a sense of the critical statements made by his son and LJP chief Chirag Paswan. Later, Yadav, who is BJP in charge for Bihar, accompanied the father-son duo to the residence of Shah for a meeting, which lasted an hour, sources said.
“Ram Vilas Paswan has stressed that the NDA seat adjustment should be made public at the earliest, including the constituencies being allocated to the allies. He also told the BJP chief that the NDA’s development poll plank should not be diluted by raising the Ram temple issue,” sources added.
The BJP appears to be wary of further losing allies after the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP) broke ranks, while restive Shiv Sena continues to poke. “The seat adjustment - BJP and JD (U) 17 each and LJP six seats - has already been agreed upon. Talks on identifying individual seats are in final stages,” BJP sources stated.
Meanwhile, the Congress in charge for Bihar Shakti Sinh Gohil cited ideology for the induction of Kushwaha and Manjhi. Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav said that the alliance partners would take up seat sharing for the Lok Sabha polls later.