Nitish Kumar meets Amit Shah ahead of ‘honourable’ pact for 2019 in Bihar
Nitish Kumar, who is in the national capital for some “routine” medical tests at the All India Institute for Medical Sciences, had a quiet meeting with Amit Shah at his residence.
As negotiations for seat sharing in Bihar for next year’s general elections enter the last lap, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar called on BJP boss Amit Shah on Wednesday and is learnt to have discussed, what he has already prophesised, would be as an “honourable” seat-sharing arrangement.
Nitish Kumar, who is in the national capital for some “routine” medical tests at the All India Institute for Medical Sciences, had a quiet meeting with Amit Shah at his residence.
It was quite a sharp contrast to their last set of widely-publicised meetings in Patna, over breakfast and dinner, which were designed to convey that there was no rift between the alliance partners.
Wednesday’s meeting, being described as a courtesy call by BJP leaders, comes days after Janata Dal (United) chief Nitish Kumar announced that the seat-sharing arrangement would be finalised in just more few days.
Kumar had then, also asked leaders not to go by media speculation and be assured that the JD (U) would contest elections with pride and honour.
After his meeting with Amit Shah, Nitish Kumar headed straight to Bihar Bhavan where he is said to have be closeted at a meeting with KC Tyagi, his party’s general secretary and Prashant Kishor, the political strategist who joined JD (U) last week.
Bihar sends 40 members to the Lok Sabha that will need to be split between the four partners of the NDA for next year’s general elections. Ram Vilas Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party and Upendra Kushwaha’s Rashtriya Lok Samta Party are the two other partners in the state.
The JD (U) contested the 2014 elections separately and managed to win just two Lok Sabha seats. The three other NDA allies in the state won 31 out of the 40 seats in that election.
In the 2015 Bihar assembly elections, the JD (U) won 71 of the 101 seats it contested, while the BJP emerged victorious in 53 out of 157 seats in which it fielded candidates. Sunday’s meet of the JD (U) was the first after the party’s national executive authorised Kumar to take a call on seat-sharing with the BJP.
