NDA seat allocation in Bihar to be finalised in a week

New Delhi, Feb 19 (IANS) Seat allocation among Bihar's ruling NDA constituents is likely to be finalised by next week and would be announced ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the state on March 3.

"The seat allocation among us will be decided in a week's time and the announcements will be made before Prime Minister Modi's visit," a senior Janata Dal-United (JD-U) leader told IANS.

According to the seat-sharing formula, the BJP and the JD-U will contest 17 seats each, while the remaining six seats will be given to Ram Vilas Paswan-led Lok Janshakti Party (LJP).

In the 2014 general elections, the NDA had won 31 of the total 40 Lok Sabha seats it contested in Bihar, with the BJP securing 22, the LJP six and the Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP) three seats. The JD-U, which contested alone, was reduced to just two seats.

Political alignments in the state have since changed drastically, with the BJP-led NDA now facing a stiff challenge from the RJD and Congress-led 'mahagathbandhan'.

Nitish Kumar's JD-U, which contested the Assembly polls in an alliance with the mahagathbandhan, after winning the elections, left it and returned to old ally NDA in July 2017.

In December 2018, the RLSP led by former Union minister Upendra Kushwaha, pulled out of the NDA and joined the 'mahagathbandhan'.

The Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) led by former Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi, which contested the 2015 assembly polls as an NDA ally, has also pulled out of the alliance and joined the 'mahagathbandhan' in the state.