Ahead of the Bihar Assembly elections, the ruling NDA on Tuesday announced its seat-sharing formula for the polls under which JD(U) will contest on 122 seats and BJP will get 121 out of a total of 243 seats.
JD(U) will be giving seven seats from their quota to Jitan Ram Manjhi's Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) and "talks are underway" of BJP accommodating seats from their quota to Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP), said Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.
Meanwhile, BJP's ally at the Centre Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) will be contesting elections alone in Bihar. LJP President Chirag Paswan has made it clear that it will not contest the elections in alliance with JD(U) due to ideological differences. In a statement, the party said, it shares the strong alliance with BJP at the national level and it does not have difference with BJP. LJP further added that after the announcement of result, their MLAs will form the government with BJP to support Prime Minister Narendra Modi's development initiative.
However, Bihar BJP chief Sanjay Jaiswal on Tuesday said "the LJP is our ally at the Centre and we pray for early recovery of its founder and Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan. But there should be no confusion with regard to the fact that in Bihar the NDAs leader is Nitish Kumar. Our alliance with his party is atoot (unbreakable)."
Responding to a query about post-poll scenario, Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi, asserted "we have said unequivocally that Nitish Kumar will be our Chief Minister. It does not matter which party gets how many seats in the elections".
Elections to the 243-seat Bihar assembly will be held in three phases--October 28, November 3, and 7 and the counting of votes will take place on November 10.
(With PTI inputs)
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