Party hopes Amit Shah-Nitish Kumar meeting will bring clarity on seat-sharing pact, leadership issue.
New Delhi: The JD(U), which seems to be getting uncomfortable in the BJP-led NDA, does not want to highlight this aspect at all during its national executive meeting due on 8 July, ThePrint has learnt.
Instead, the party led by Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar wants to focus on increasing its organisational strength.
Sources said that JD(U) spokespersons have been told to avoid talking about any trouble in its alliance with the BJP, at least before the scheduled meeting between Nitish Kumar and BJP president Amit Shah on 12 July in Patna.
Shah will reach Patna on 11 July to take a stock of the party’s preparations for the 2019 elections. The next day he will meet Kumar at the latter’s residence before leaving for Jharkhand.
“Nowadays, media is only interested in knowing whether there is a trouble in the alliance or not,” said a senior JD(U) leader.
“Since the BJP chief is meeting our party president on 12 July, we have instructed our spokespersons to refrain from making any comment to avoid unnecessary speculation,” the leader added.
According to JD(U) sources, the meeting between Shah and Kumar is expected focus on the seat-sharing arrangement for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls and projection of the leader of the alliance in Bihar. Currently, the party doesn’t want to be seen as desperate to walk out of the coalition.
In the past few weeks, a number of JD(U) leaders have openly spoken and advocated for a larger share of seats for the JD(U) in Bihar.
Senior leader K.C. Tyagi had said that JD(U) is the big brother of NDA in Bihar and next elections would be fought under the leadership of Nitish Kumar.
However, things got a little ugly after JD(U) spokesperson Sanjay Singh said in Patna on 25 June that BJP is free to contest in all the 40 seats in Bihar.
“BJP knows without Nitishji, it will not be able to win in Bihar. The situation in 2019 is different from 2014,” said Sanjay Singh. “If it does not want any ally, BJP can field its candidates in all the 40 Lok Sabha seats.”
His remark came after the BJP leader Rajendra Singh said his party would contest in all the 22 seats won by the party in 2014. Sanjay Singh had also asked the BJP to rein in its outspoken party leaders.
Now, JD(U) has asked its spokespersons to not talk about the issue until the Shah-Kumar meeting gets over.