Amit Shah meets Ram Vilas Paswan, Chirag over seat-sharing in Bihar

Amid signs of unease from Lok Janshakti Party over "delay" in seat-sharing in Bihar for the Lok Sabha elections, BJP Chief Amit Shah on Thursday met Union minister and LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan and his son Chirag at his Delhi residence.

The meetings took place on a day Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP), a former constituent of BJP-led NDA, formally joined the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance.

BJP leader Bhupendra Yadav first went to meet Chirag and Ram Vilas Paswan and the three leaders later went to the residence of Amit Shah. They were joined there by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. The meeting lasted about half an hour.

The leaders did not speak to the media after the briefing.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar will arrive in the national capital on Friday and is expected to hold seat-sharing talks with BJP and LJP leaders. The BJP and Janata Dal-United had declared earlier that they will contest an equal number of seats in Bihar in 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

Bihar Minister Pashupati Kumar Paras, younger brother of Ram Vilas Paswan, had said on Wednesday that the party "wanted that seat sharing issue be resolved by December 31, as elections have come closer and a lot of preparation has to be done."

Chirag Paswan had also said that BJP should listen to its allies before it's too late and reach a seat-sharing arrangement or bear the losses following it.

Earlier in the morning Ram Vilas Paswan said that "there was no unhappiness."

"Chirag is the Parliamentary Board chairman and he will talk about the issue," he said.

--IANS

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