The seat-sharing talks between the BJP and its three allies in Bihar remained inconclusive on Friday too. The NDA leaders maintain that the delay is to do with announcement of the list of candidates, and there has been an informal understanding among the four parties about the distribution.
The leaders of NDA partners – Ram Vilas Paswan, Jitan Ram Manjhi and Upendra Kushwaha – are pressurising the BJP to complete negotiations at the earliest. The talks between the NDA partners and top BJP leadership continued here on Friday as well.
A source from the BJP said that the list of candidates would be announced in a day or two. The party does not want to precipitate the ongoing differences among allies over sharing of seats and the issue of leadership.
There were reports that the BJP had offered 25 seats to the Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) and 30 to Rashtriya Lok Samata Party. Both parties have reportedly expressed their dissatisfaction at the offer. Manjhi and Paswan had publicly criticised each other recently.
The NDA leaders, however, downplayed the differences and said the focus was to fight the ‘jungle raj’ in Bihar. They said all issues would be settled amicably and the NDA would come out with the list of candidates during the weekend.