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Bihar polls: NDA likely to announce seat sharing deal today

by IBNS 12 Sep 2015, 07:08 am

New Delhi/Patna, Sept 12 (IBNS) The BJP, which has managed to smoothen the ruffled feathers of its allies with a successful seat-sharing for next months' Bihar assemby polls is likely to announce it on Saturday.

Media reports said the BJP is likely contest at least 160 of the 243 seats, while the allies will share the rest of the 70-odd seats. The arrangement was finalised at a meeting of BJP chief Amit Shah and union minister and Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) chief Ram Vilas Paswan on Friday night.

Ahead of the seat sharing announcement, BJP's top leaders will meet at  Shah's residence on Saturday to be followed by a meeting of the NDA allies. 

Earlier this week, Upendra Kushwaha of the Rashtriya Lok Samata Party had written to BJP chief Amit Shah mandating him and Prime Minister Narendra Modi to decide on seat-sharing, adding that he was confident they would "give a respectable share to allies."
 

Kushwaha had recently suggested that the BJP should contest only the 102 seats it had contested in the last elections, when it was an ally of Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal (United). But the BJP wanted to contest at least 165 of Bihar's seats, so that it is assured of winning a comfortable majority of 122 on its own and reducing its dependence on the partners.