Patna
The two NDA partners in Bihar — LJP and BJP — on Sunday could not release the list of the candidates for the Bihar Assembly election even after four days of the beginning of nominations. The BJP central election committee meeting continued till late on Sunday night in New Delhi and the JD-U held its meeting at the residence of state party president Bashistha Naraian Singh.
Senior JD-U leaders RCP Sinha, Lalan Singh and Vijay Kumar Chaudhary held a meeting at the 36, Hardinge Road residence of state party chief. The meeting was held after the LJP decided to contest against the JD-U and a fresh list was prepared for the Assembly constituencies.
A meeting of senior BJP leaders from Bihar was on at the party headquarters in Delhi at the time of going to press. The leaders present there were Sushil Kumar Modi and Prem Kumar, Shahnawaj Hussain. Party’s election in-charge for Bihar, Devendra Fadnavis and general secretary, Bhupinder Yadav, presented a tentative list before the panel.
The talks between JD-U and BJP on Friday at Patna was almost at breaking point as the senior JD-U leader, Lalan Singh, challenged the saffron party to contest all the seats. The talks took an ugly turn when Fardnavis objected to the remarks and said BJP was ready to contest the 243 seats. The fissures began to appear when BJP sought an equal distribution of seats between the parties in the seat-sharing arrangement, and Lalan Singh reminded him, “You had contested 2015 assembly poll without us. Go and test your strength.”
The LJP resolution predicting next govt formation without JD-U and with BJP, is aimed at cornering the Nitish Kumar’s party, as per its leaders who said, LJP’s act betrayed the coalition dharma.
