Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will contest on 17 of the 40 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar in next year’s general elections alongside Janata Dal (United), which will contest on 17, and Lok Janshakti Party (LJP), which will contest on the remaining 6.
BJP’s seat share is 5 less than it won in 2014.
Speaking to reporters in New Delhi after a meeting to discuss the seat-sharing arrangement, BJP president Amit Shah expressed confidence in a thumping victory of the NDA alliance in Bihar.
Accompanied by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who is also the chief of JD(U), and LJP president Ram Vilas Paswan, Shah said, “The decision has been taken unanimously after taking into consideration the ground realities of Bihar.”
Shah said that all three parties are confident that that the NDA will win more seats in 2019 than 2014 in the state and will again bring NDA government in the Centre under Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“Talks on which party will contest from which constituency will be finalised in the coming days,” said Shah.
He also announced that Ram Vilas Paswan will be the NDA candidate for the Rajya Sabha in the next elections to the upper house. Paswan is currently a minister in PM Modi’s cabinet.
Nitish Kumar added that he is confident of the NDA coalition winning more seats than it did in 2009. In the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, the NDA coalition had won 32 of the 40 seats in Bihar.
Prasanta Patnaik