Paswan’s brother sets Dec 31 deadline for BJP to seal seat-sharing pact

The Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) of union minister Ram Vilas Paswan has put the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on notice over seat sharing talks, asking it on Wednesday to finalise the agreement for Bihar by December 31.

“We want the seat sharing issue be resolved by December 31, as elections have come closer and a lot of preparation has to be done,” Bihar’s animal husbandry minister and LJP leader Pashupati Kumar Paras said in Patna. “The BJP president should immediately call a meeting of NDA leaders and hold joint discussions,” added Paras, Paswan’s younger brother.

Another senior LJP leader in Delhi said the “dispute” between the two parties was not restricted to just seat sharing. “We flagged a number of issues; such as farm unrest, impact of demonetisation, jobs and many more, to BJP leadership, but, they have not taken note of it,” the second LJP leader said. “The outcome of the recent elections has proved that these challenges are real and we can’t ignore them.”

LJP leaders, this person claimed, raised this matter with their BJP counterparts and senior ministers on at least “five or six occasion” in the last several months, but the latter did not respond. “We asked them to share details of how many jobs have been created in the last four years... We have not received any answers,” the LJP leader said, adding that the matter will be flagged again to the BJP’s top leadership this week.

Interestingly, Paras’ ultimatum came a day after Paswan’s MP son Chirag Paswan sent out two tweets, cautioning the BJP that it should treat its remaining allies with respect and that any delay in talks would hurt the NDA.

BJP president Amit Shah announced last month that his party and the Janata Dal (United) of Nitish Kumar would contest an equal number of seats, leaving the rest for other allies. The Rashtriya Lok Samta Party of OBC leader Upendra Kushwaha was part of the NDA when the announcement was made. Kushwaha exited the NDA on December 12. “A broad agreement has been made that the BJP and the JD(U) will contest 17 seats each, and six will go the LJP. But we are waiting for a formal announcement,” a second LJP leader said.

“Shah said in September that an announcement would be made in four weeks...Then we were asked to wait till Kushwaha’s decision. Then we were asked to wait till the results of the elections are out. It is already a week after that,” this person added.

A senior BJP functionary said the announcement was expected soon.This BJP leader confirmed requesting anonymity that the broad agreement was to share 17 seats between the two bigger partners and leave the rest for Paswan. The BJP contested 30 seats and won 21 in 2014. The LJP fielded candidates in 7 and won 6, while Kushwaha won all 3 where he put up a candidate.

The JD(U) contested separately and could win just two seats. Nitish Kumar returned to the NDA fold last year, necessitating readjustment of seats between the alliance partners. Paswan said last month that his party will seek a “honourable share”, and Kushwaha’s exit prompted the LJP to ask for at least six seats and a Rajya Sabha berth for Ram Vilas Paswan.

Bihar has about 16% SC population, and Paswans alone accounts for 4-5% of State’s total population. The LJP has a strong following among Paswans and its transferable votes makes it a key player in the state.

In one of his tweets, Chirag Paswan pointed out that the NDA has seen the exit of its two major allies, Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and the RLSP.

JD(U) spokesman Rajiv Ranjan Prasad said the tuning between all three constituents of the NDA in Bihar is perfect and that the tweets are not any cause for alarm. A BJP national general secretary in New Delhi dismissed any threat to the alliance.

“LJP is not going the RLSP way. We are in constant touch and the alliance is intact.” Bihar BJP’s spokesperson Nikhil Anand added that there is a strong bonding between NDA leaders. “It’s just a matter of time and we need to keep patience. LJP is our trusted ally,” he said. Kushwaha said the LJP should leave the NDA.