PATNA: Union Minister Chirag Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) reminded its two major allies --BJP and JD (U) -- of how it contested elections solo in the 2020 assembly polls when it was not offered a number of seats that could satisfy the aspirations of party workers.
The remark comes just before the seat-sharing deal gets finalised.
While explaining why his party fought in 137 seats in the last state elections, Arun Bharti, LJP(RV) MP from Jamui and brother in-law of Chirag, said that only his party could dare to contest assembly elections in the State on its own, without entering into any alliance.
Bharti, however, pointed out that LJP secured six per cent of votes in the previous assembly election.
“Had we contested all the 243 seats, we would have security 10 per cent of vote share in the election,” he said, adding that the party had contested only 137 out of 243 seats in the assembly.
“In 2020, when we could not fulfil sentiment and expectations of our workers due to coalition obligations, so we took the bold decision to contest the election alone,” Jamui MP said, while also contending that the party’s decision to go solo in the previous election was a ‘strategic move’.
Though LJP could not perform well, it damaged the prospects of JD(U) in the 2020 assembly election.
JD(U) was reduced to 43 seats as LJP fielded its candidates against the former in the majority of the seats.
Buoyed by party’s 100 per cent strike rate in the 2024 Lok Sabha election, LJP(RV) is expecting a good number of seats in the upcoming assembly elections.
In the previous Lok Sabha polls, LJP won all five seats that it contested.
According to reports, LJP(RV) has demanded 40 seats from the BJP-led NDA. Sources said that the BJP is not ready to give more than 25 seats to LJP(RV). Initially, it was offered 20 seats, but it was increased to 25 later.
However, it is not clear whether LJP(RV) has accepted BJP’s offer of 25 seats. A senior LJP(RV) leader said that the question of compromise on the number of seats did not arise.
“We will not compromise on less than 30 seats,” the leader said.
Besides LJP(RV), BJP, JD(U), Rashtriya Lok Morcha (RLM) led by Upendra Kushwaha and Union Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi’s Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) are allies of NDA. As per discussions held with union home minister Amit Shah in New Delhi, out of 243 seats, JD(U) may contest 102, BJP 101, LJP(RV) 20, HAM and RLM 10 seats each, respectively.