Amit Shah meets LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan, son to talk 2019 seat share

BJP boss Amit Shah is meeting Lok Janshakti Party’s Ram Vilas Paswan and his son Chirag at his Delhi residence. The meeting comes a day after the Bihar politicians went public with their December 31 deadline to seal the NDA’s seat-sharing arrangement for the 2019 elections in Bihar. Paswan’s party has been flexing its muscles over the delay and has attempted to pressurise the BJP to finalise the pact soon.

Bihar’s animal husbandry minister and LJP leader Pashupati Kumar Paras had on Wednesday said that the BJP should call a meeting of NDA leaders and resolve the seat sharing issue. Calling for joint discussions, Paras, Paswan’s younger brother, had said, “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.”

Ahead of the meeting, Paswan had played down the issue and had said that there was no unhappiness. “Koi narazgi nahi hai, Chirag Parliamentray Board k chairman hain, wahi is sambandh main baat karenge. (There is no unhappiness. Chirag is the Parliamentary Board chairman and he will talk about the issue),” Paswan said.

Seat sharing isn’t the only bone of discontent that the LJP has against the BJP.

“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,” a senior LJP leader said. “The outcome of the recent elections has proved that these challenges are real and we can’t ignore them.”

Paras’ ultimatum to the BJP came a day after Paswan’s MP son Chirag Paswan cautioned the BJP in two tweets saying that it should treat its allies with respect and that any delay in talks would hurt the NDA.

Last month, Amit Shah had announced that the BJP and Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United) would contest an equal number of seats and would leave the rest for other allies.

Kushwaha’s RLSP was part of the NDA when Shah had made this announcement. Unhappy with this deal, Kushwaha walked out of 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.