New Delhi: A day after BJP declared its first
list of candidates for Jharkhand assembly elections, its ally
JD(U) on Wednesday said talks with its NDA ally over seat sharing
have failed and announced nominees for 19 seats.
"The current situation is that our seat sharing talks
with BJP for Jharkhand assembly polls have broken down. We had
been talking to them (BJP leadership) for the last three days,
as we wanted to contest 18 seats like last time, but talks
have failed," JD(U) chief Sharad Yadav told reporters here.
BJP, however, described as surprising the breakdown of
the talks, saying it was a "unilateral" decision taken by its
NDA ally despite being offered their priority seats.
Yadav said both the alliance partners could not reach a
consensus. "First they announced their candidates, and today
we decided to announce ours," he said.
Out of the 81 assembly constituencies in the state, BJP
yesterday declared its first list of candidates for 58 seats.
The JD(U) chief indicated that his party could announce
more names. "The field is open for us now," he said.
During the last assembly elections, JD(U) had contested
18 seats and won six and wanted to contest the same number of
seats this time.
Reacting to the development, BJP leader Mukhtar Abbas
Naqvi, who was given the responsibility of finalising the
seat-sharing arrangement with JD(U), said "I am hurt and
surprised to hear this news. We had honoured JD(U)`s demands
and offered them their priority seats during the discussions.
The announcement of breakdown of talks by JD(U) is one-sided
and unilateral".
Bureau Report
