BJP finally announced the seat sharing formula for Bihar elections and it came after much wrangling and negotiations between the alliance partners. BJP shall contest 160 seats while the alliance partners shall collectively fight 83 seats. The break-up for seat sharing gives Ram Vilas Paswan- led LJP the maximum of 40 seats, while Upendra Kushwaha-led RLSP gets 23 seats and Jitan Manjhi-led HAM ended up with 20 seats.
The final agreement however did not come easy. Jitan Manjhi was reportedly very unhappy to be allocated the lowest share of seats, while some media reports suggested that Ram Vilas Paswan too was unhappy with his share. But Amit Shah was unrelenting, knowing fully well that he was in a position to dictate and that the alliance partners had little choice but to comply. To placate Jitan Manjhi, Amit Shah announced that he would allow Jitan Manjhi to nominate 4-5 candidates of his choice who would fight on a BJP ticket. Smart move. Amit Shah has killed two birds with one stone. He has won over Manjhi while ensuring that his nominees will always serve BJP’s bidding as they would have won on a BJP ticket. He has bought peace, at least for now. The situation amongst alliance partners was certainly tenuous in the run up to the final announcement and can be gauged by the fact that Amit Shah had to cancel his outstation trip in order to resolve the seat sharing row.
BJP finally announced the seat sharing formula for Bihar elections and it came after much wrangling and negotiations between the alliance partners. BJP shall contest 160 seats while the alliance partners shall collectively fight 83 seats. The break-up for seat sharing gives Ram Vilas Paswan- led LJP the maximum of 40 seats, while Upendra Kushwaha-led RLSP gets 23 seats and Jitan Manjhi-led HAM ended up with 20 seats.
The final agreement however did not come easy. Jitan Manjhi was reportedly very unhappy to be allocated the lowest share of seats, while some media reports suggested that Ram Vilas Paswan too was unhappy with his share. But Amit Shah was unrelenting, knowing fully well that he was in a position to dictate and that the alliance partners had little choice but to comply. To placate Jitan Manjhi, Amit Shah announced that he would allow Jitan Manjhi to nominate 4-5 candidates of his choice who would fight on a BJP ticket. Smart move. Amit Shah has killed two birds with one stone. He has won over Manjhi while ensuring that his nominees will always serve BJP’s bidding as they would have won on a BJP ticket. He has bought peace, at least for now. The situation amongst alliance partners was certainly tenuous in the run up to the final announcement and can be gauged by the fact that Amit Shah had to cancel his outstation trip in order to resolve the seat sharing row.
