LJP, RLSP miffed over delay in finalising seats

The LJP and RLSP on Monday expressed their unhappiness over delay in finalisation of seats for the upcoming Bihar assembly elections, saying the BJP must contest only 102 of the 243 seats and leave 141 for its three allies.

Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) and the Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP) expressed discomfort with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders' slogan -- "Abki bar Bhajpa sarkar", saying it was wrong to raise such a slogan as the next government would be formed by BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

Addressing a joint press conference here LJP's state president Pasupati Kumar Paras and RLSP state president Arun Kumar said the BJP should finalise the seat sharing at the earliest, as it would be the sooner the better.

"BJP should finalise seat sharing within a week or before September 5 because the Election Commission is likely to announce the date of the polls," said Paras, younger brother of LJP chief and union minister Ram Vilas Paswan.

Arun Kumar, an RLSP MP from Jehanabad seat, said the leaders and workers of the LJP and RLSP were angry over delay to finalise the seat sharing for the polls."BJP-led NDA should call a meeting soon to finalise seat sharing."

Paras said the BJP was delaying seat sharing despite the fact that Rashtriya Janata Dal and Janata Dal-United (RJD-JD-U) have announced their seat sharing and virtually given tickets to their candidates. Their candidates are working in respective assembly constituencies.

"We request BJP leaders to finalise the seat sharing without wasting any time," he said.

Last week, RLSP chief Upendra Kushwaha, the union minister of state of human resource development, said that in the last assembly polls in 2010, the BJP contested 102 seats and the Janata Dal-United (JD-U), then a BJP ally, put up candidates in 141 constituencies.

"Last time there was only one ally but this time there are three allies, and the BJP should concentrate (on the seats it contested) last time," he said.

Kushwaha said the RLSP wanted to contest from 67 seats. He said the LJP should be given 74 seats, adding some seats could be given to the Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM).

BJP president Amit Shah, who has discussed seat sharing with party colleagues from Bihar, announced earlier this year that his party wanted to contest and win 185 of the 243 seats.

On the other hand, the RJD and the JD-U have decided to contest 100 seats each, leaving 40 to the Congress and three to the Nationalist Congress Party.