BJP concedes a few more seats to its partners in Bihar, asks them to accept the offer

Under pressure from disgruntled allies, the Bharatiya Janata Party has decided to concede a few more seats to Ram Vilas Paswan's Lok Janshakti Party and Rashtriya Lok Samata Party of Upendra Kushwaha. In the final round of seat sharing talks on Friday night, the BJP decided to contest 160 seats, LJP 40, RLSP 25 and Hindustani Awam Morcha of Jitan Ram Manjhi 18. A formal announcement is likely to be made on Saturday evening after Bihar BJP leaders reach Delhi.

The BJP leadership also categorically told the allies that no more tantrums would be accepted and all of them must accept the offer. They also added that it promises to be a tough fight against the combined might of Janata Dal United-Rashtriya Janata Dal-Congress Mahagathbandhan while pointing out that the delay in seat sharing was sending out a wrong message and giving ammunition to the rivals.

After the BJP on Friday conveyed to its Bihar allies that they would be getting only 73 seats and the rest 170 would be contested by it, both Paswan and Kushwaha expressed their displeasure at being given just 35 and 20 seats each. Former Bihar chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi was offered the remaining 18 seats.

BJP had adopted the formula of six seats for every Lok Sabha seat won and decided the seat sharing arrangement. But the biggest stumbling block was proving to be the rivalry between Paswan and Manjhi, who broke away from the Janata Dal United a few months back after being the chief minister of Bihar for about nine months.

Paswan wanted all seats falling under Jamui Lok Sabha constituency, which is represented by his son Chirag Paswan. But two of the Assembly segments - Jamui and Chakai - were won by JDU candidates Sumit Kumar Singh and Ajay Pratap Singh in the 2010 Assembly elections. Sumit and Ajay are sons of Narendra Singh, a close aide of Manjhi and he had warned the former Bihar CM that if seats of his sons are compromised then he would look for other options, a clear hint that he may come back to the JDU.

Given the fact that Paswan's party contested seven Lok Sabha seats in 2014 and won six, he has finally been asked to accept 40 seats while Kushwaha has been offered five more, taking his party's number to 25.

Sources privy to the talks say in order to placate Kushwaha, BJP may also offer another deal which could also include the post of deputy chief minister.

Moreover, the loyalty of both Kushwaha and Manjhi is questionable. BJP leaders are aiming of securing majority on their own and reduce their dependency on the allies.

But even these numbers may not be able to settle the seat sharing issue as both LJP and RLSP leaders want a much larger share which is disproportionate to their strength. Both Paswan and Kushwaha will find it difficult to sell the deal to their party members many of whom can join the electoral battle as rebels.