Bihar polls: LJP MP unhappy on being sidelined over seat-sharing

Patna: Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) MP Rama Singh on Saturday expressed his unhappiness on being sidelined on the issue of seat sharing among the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) parties for the upcoming Bihar Assembly polls.

Singh, a criminal-turned-politician, said that there is no internal democracy in the party led by union minister Ram Vilas Paswan and has openly questioned the way he was not involved in finalising seat sharing.

"All the decisions were taken by two-three leaders of the party including Paswan, his son Chirag and his brothers. There is no internal democracy in the LJP," Singh told media here.

He cautioned the party that ignoring senior and experienced leaders like him would cost LJP in the Assembly polls.

According to LJP, Singh is upset after he was not consulted by Paswan before finalising the seat sharing with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

However, reports reaching here suggest that LJP has also accepted the seat sharing formula of the BJP like two other allies -- Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP) chief Upendra Kushwaha and former Bihar chief minister and Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) president Jitan Ram Manjhi.

This development comes after BJP`s top leaders met Paswan late Friday night in Delhi.

The BJP leaders said the party would contest 160 to 162 of the 243 assembly seats and leave the remaining 83 to 85 seats to its three allies.

The BJP-led NDA was likely to formally announce the seat-sharing arrangement on Saturday.

On the other hand, the grand alliance of JD-U and RJD would contest 100 seats each and the Congress would contest 40 seats. 

Three seats were left for the Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) but the party walked away from the alliance on the issue. 

The grand alliance is yet to identify which seats each party would contest.