by Harish Gupta, National Editor, Lokmat Group
exclusive
BJP struggling with Sena, JD (U) to identify LS seats
BJP contesting 22 in Maharashtra and 17 in Bihar
Parliamentary board to meet on March15-16
Harish Gupta
New Delhi, March 13
The BJP high command is working on a war footing basis with Shiv Sena and Janata Dal (U) in Maharashtra and Bihar respectively to identify Lok Sabha seats electoral partners will contest.
The BJP has agreed to contest 22 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra leaving 26 for Shiv Sena. But these 22 seats have not been identified as yet and internal discussions have not been completed as yet. Similarly, in Bihar the BJP will forego its claim on five Lok Sabha seat to keep Nitish Kumar in good humour. The BJP has 22 sitting MPs from Bihar in Lok Sabha. The JD (U) will also contest 17 seats while Ram Vilas Paswan’s LJP will contest remaining 6 seats. The seats in Bihar have not been identified so far.
The BJP high command’s discussions with JD (U) have almost been completed and a formal announcement is possible anytime tomorrow. But Maharashtra is still causing problems despite BJP conceding extra space to Shiv Sena. The BJP is also up set that despite conceding more seats, the Sena’s official organ continues to criticize the Modi government policies.
Highly placed sources in the BJP say that BJP’s Parliamentary Board will meet on March 15-16 to announce party candidates for 91 seats in Phase-I and 97 seats in Phase-II. Maharashtra’s 7 seats are in phase-I and 10 in Phase-II. The BJP wants to finalise seat allocation with Sena before its board meets. Similarly, Bihar’s 9 seats are in Phase-I and phase-II.
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