Sudhanshu / PATNA: BJP president Amit Shah today said that BJP’s alliance with Nitish Kumar will continue in Bihar.The BJP and Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal United will contest and win all 40 parliamentary seats in Bihar, BJP chief Amit Shah said today amid growing tension between the two parties. The ice-breaking session took place this morning, during breakfast at a state guest house attended by both leaders.
This comes after Amit Shah’s discussion with JD(U) leader and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar over breakfast and dinner during his visit to Patna today amid reports of differences between the two allies.
Shah’s first visit to Bihar after Kumar’s JD(U) rejoined the NDA in 2017 comes in the backdrop of repeated assertions by spokesmen of the JD(U) that it was the “elder brother” in the coalition and should get the lion’s share of 40 Lok Sabha seats in the state.
The two leaders will meet again for dinner, where they are expected to set in motion a process to discuss seat sharing.
Over the recent months, state leaders over both parties have issued pointed statements about seat sharing for the 2019 elections. Each party wants to project itself as the “big brother” in the alliance and contest the larger number of seats. Last week, the Chief Minister said his party will take a final call on seat sharing after seeing what the BJP has to offer, triggering speculation about a possible split ahead of the elections.
Today, in his address to the party workers, Mr Shah said the BJP will contest next parliamentary elections together with Nitish Kumar. “All speculation in this regard — about differences and infighting over seat sharing — is unfounded and nothing of that sort will happen,” Mr Shah said. “You can continue to speculate but we will contest together and win all the 40 seats,” he added.
Mr Shah was meeting party leaders and workers to discuss the ground situation and hold strategy session before tonight’s dinner.
After the 45-minute breakfast meeting this morning, the two leaders posed for the cameras, smiling and chatting. They were accompanied by Bihar Deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi and state BJP chief Nityanand Rai.
The speculation of a rift between Nitish Kumar and the BJP had intensified as the Chief Minister dialled RJD Leader Lalu Yadav. The leaders of the state Congress, part of the Grand Alliance and now and RJD ally, hinted the party could consider taking Mr Kumar back into fold if he breaks away from the BJP.
