As Nitish Kumar & Amit Shah prepare to meet, their parties are busy ensuring it goes well

Leaders on both sides don’t want the meeting between their party presidents to end without a conclusion | @AmitShah/Twitter

Sources say JD(U) wants 14 seats, which was conveyed to BJP during a 1 July meeting between aides of Nitish and Shah. The two will meet next week. 

New Delhi: Talks are underway between leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Janata Dal (United) to make sure the upcoming seat-sharing discussions between their chiefs doesn’t end in a stalemate.

BJP president Amit Shah is scheduled to meet Bihar chief minister and JD(U) chief Nitish Kumar in Patna on 12 July, about eight months ahead of Lok Sabha elections due next year.

Sources have told ThePrint that the JD(U) is willing to settle for 14 seats, a huge step down from the 25-15 formula that was at play in 2009, the last time the BJP-JD(U) alliance fought together in Bihar. But this will also require some adjustment from the BJP, which won 22 of the 29 seats it contested alone in 2014.

Since the 12 July meeting was fixed, efforts have been afoot to arrive at an agreement before Shah and Nitish sit down together, tense as their ties are amid reports of a rethink in the JD(U) about its alliance with the BJP.

On 1 July, two close aides of the CM — state minister Rajiv Ranjan Singh and Rajya Sabha member RCP Singh — flew to Delhi to meet the BJP’s Bihar in-charge Bhupendra Yadav to set the agenda for the Nitish-Shah meeting. The JD(U)’s demand for 14 seats was discussed at this meeting, ThePrint has learnt.

New seat formula

A lot has changed since the allies last contested the Lok Sabha elections together in 2009 with the 25-15 formula for Bihar’s 40 seats.

In 2014, when the JD(U) was not part of the NDA, the BJP contested 29 seats, while alliance partners Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) and the Rashtriya Lok Samta Party (RLSP) contested seven (won six) and four (won three), respectively.

The JD(U) won two out of 40, a far cry from the 20 it had won in 2009.

In the current scenario, the BJP will have to accommodate the JD(U) alongside the LJP, led by Ram Vilas Paswan, and Upendra Kushwaha’s RLSP.

The BJP, sources say, wanted the two partners to get the seats they won in 2014. Then with JD(U) wanting 14 seats, the BJP will be left with 17.

The discussions between Yadav and the JD(U)’s Rajiv Ranjan Singh and RCP Singh also factored in some rebels within the LJP and RLSP — the possibility was discussed that the two parties may contest fewer seats if some of their MPs do defect.

The BJP and the JD(U) are reportedly also not sure of Kushwaha, a union minister, and there are fears he might switch sides to the Congress-RJD alliance at the last minute.

The final seat agreement will only be fixed once clarity emerges on these factors.

Yadav has already briefed Shah on his discussions with the JD(U) duo.

JD(U) meet

Meanwhile, the JD(U) is also holding a national executive in Delhi on 8 July where Nitish will interact with party leaders. During his visit, the Bihar chief minister will also meet senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley, reportedly to strengthen the alliance ahead of his meeting with Shah.

“Nitishji will meet everyone in Delhi. He shares a good relationship with Jaitley and nothing more should be read into the meeting,” said senior JD(U) leader K.C. Tyagi.

Shah’s trip to Bihar is his first to the state since the 2015 assembly elections, which the JD(U) and the BJP contested as rivals before eventually patching up in 2017, four years after their 2013 split.