Bihar polls: NDA seat-sharing announcement may be made today; Manjhi pressing for more seats

Delhi: The much expected announcement of a seat-sharing arrangement among NDA allies for the upcoming Bihar Assembly polls may be made on Sunday.

The announcement which was due to be made yesterday could not be made because of Hindustan Awam Morcha leader and former Bihar CM Jitan Ram Manjhi's demand for more seats, sources had said, as per IANS.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders continued to hold discussions with the constituents - Ram Vilas Paswan's Lok Janshakti Party (LJP), Upendra Kushwaha's Rashtriya Lok Samta Party (RLSP) and Manjhi's HAM (Secular) through the day on Saturday to iron out differences over some seats.

At one time, it had seemed yesterday that the announcement would come through as the BJP seemed to have worked out a formula under which it would contest 162 of the total 243 assembly seats in the fray, leaving 41 for LJP, 25 for RLSP and 15 for HAM.

Sources had said it had also been decided that five candidates of HAM would contest on BJP's symbol as a compromise formula.

However, the hope of an announcement proved short lived as Manjhi went into a sulk after meeting his supporters in Bihar Bhavan, who pressed for more seats.

Manjhi then went to meet BJP leader Anant Kumar, who is election incharge of Bihar and Bhupendra Yadav, who is BJP incharge of Bihar, and conveyed his grievances.

The three leaders then went to the residence of Amit Shah to sort out the issues concerning seat sharing.

Manjhi later said that announcement of seats would be made on Sunday.

"Talks are going on. Announcement will be made tomorrow morning,” he had said.

The BJP leaders also went into a huddle later in the evening at Shah's residence.

Those present at the meeting included BJP leaders from Bihar - Sushil Modi, Nand Kishore Yadav, C.P. Thakur, Ashwani Choubey and Giriraj Singh - apart from Anant Kumar and Bhupendra Yadav.

There had been a tussle between Manjhi and Ram Vilas Paswan over some seats in Jamui district, represented by Paswan's son Chirag in parliament.

However, the issue appears to have been settled following a late evening meeting on Friday between the BJP and LJP leaders.

Polls to the Bihar Assembly will be held in five phases starting on October 12 and ending on November 5.

Counting of votes will take place on November 8.

(With IANS inputs)