Bihar polls: NDA in turmoil as Nitish fumes over seat-sharing deal

The NDA may have beaten the Opposition’s Mahagathbandhan (Grand Alliance) in announcing its seat-sharing deal for the Bihar polls, but problems within the ruling coalition only appear to be growing.

On Tuesday (October 14), even as the BJP released its first list of 71 candidates for the upcoming two-phase polls, its key allies continued to play truant, with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar refusing to make a formal announcement of the alliance until his concerns over seat-sharing were addressed.

Negotiators get an earful

Sources close to the Bihar chief minister told The Federal that Nitish had given an earful to his party’s key negotiators — Sanjay Jha, Rajeev Ranjan Singh ‘Lalan’, and Vijay Chaudhary — during an “emergency meeting” convened late Monday (October 13) night at his Aney Marg residence in Patna.

Nitish, said sources, expressed both disappointment and surprise at his negotiators having agreed to accept parity with the BJP in the seat-sharing deal — both parties were allotted 101 seats each in the “agreement” reached within the NDA on October 12 — and asked Jha why certain seats traditionally contested by the JD(U) had been conceded to the BJP and Chirag Paswan’s LJP(R).

Also read: Why Tejashwi pulled back poll tickets given by Lalu to RJD aspirants

Nitish upset over Tarapur seat

The JD(U) chief, it is learnt, is also unhappy at the BJP’s decision to field Deputy Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary from the Tarapur seat in Munger district, as the seat has been consecutively held by the JD(U) since 2010. Choudhary is also seen as a rival to Nitish within the NDA and was among his most vocal critics during the two brief spells when the JD(U) switched electoral allegiance to join the RJD-led Grand Alliance.

Choudhary’s name was among the 71 candidates announced by the BJP on Tuesday. Interestingly, though the BJP has never won the Tarapur seat, Choudhary’s father, Shakuni Choudhary, was the MLA from the constituency between 2000 and 2010 but as an RJD MLA, before JD(U) began its yet-uninterrupted victory lap here.

Nitish wants deal renegotiated

Nitish, who remains the only key leader of the NDA in Bihar to have refrained from publicly welcoming the seat-sharing deal, is also learnt to be livid at Paswan’s LJP(R) being allocated 29 seats in the alliance.

Sources said during his meeting with party leaders on Monday night, Nitish made it known that unless the deal is renegotiated, he will keep his option open to field candidates in some seats that have been allotted to the LJP(R), the party he holds squarely responsible for pulling down the JD(U)’s victory tally in the 2020 assembly polls.

Also read: Bihar polls: Dissatisfaction grows within JDU over seat-sharing; MP Ajay threatens to quit

It is learnt that Nitish has conveyed to the BJP that he would neither personally join nor send his representative to any NDA press conference for a formal announcement of the deal unless the agreement is renegotiated and the JD(U)’s position in the alliance as the “senior partner” is reinstated. Nitish had been insisting that the JD(U), as a matter of prestige, must be allotted at least one or two seats more than the BJP’s share.

Nitish wants to return as CM

The JD(U) chief also wants an “immediate and clear” announcement from the BJP top brass that he will return as the CM if the NDA is voted back to power. Nitish, said sources in the NDA, wants this message to be “unambiguous and not just about fighting the polls under his leadership”.

The seat-sharing deal has also created palpable dissent within the JD(U), particularly from the old-timers of the party who believe Sanjay Jha, Lalan, and Vijay Choudhary had inked a seat-sharing deal that protected their personal political interests instead of those of Nitish and their party.

Already rocked by a series of resignations over the past week due to the perception that Nitish was no longer in command, the JD(U) has suffered further jolts since the seat-sharing agreement was finalised. On Tuesday, the party’s Bhagalpur MP Ajay Kumar Mandal wrote to Nitish expressing his desire to resign from Parliament in protest against the seat-sharing deal.

Also read: Bihar polls: 2 deputy CMs, ministers in BJP's first list; Nand Kishore Yadav out

Manjhi, Kushwaha upset

While Nitish is still expressing his displeasure over the deal through intermediaries instead of speaking directly, Union minister and Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) chief Jitan Ram Manjhi and Rashtriya Lok Morcha chief Upendra Kushwaha have struck discordant notes publicly over their parties being allotted just six seats each.

Though Manjhi and Kushwaha have said they do not plan to quit or destabilise the NDA, both leaders have also made it clear that they are upset at being undervalued by the BJP. The HAM, like the JD(U), has also been rocked by resignations since the seat-sharing deal was announced. While several HAM leaders had moved to Prashant Kishore’s fledgling Jan Suraaj Party even before the NDA’s deal was finalised, sources said other HAM members were now planning to enter the poll fray as independents from constituencies such as Ghosi, Sherghati, Simri Bakhtiyarpur, Morwa, and Makhdumpur.

Also read: Exclusive: Grand Alliance on the brink as Tejashwi warns Cong, Sahani mulls exit

What BJP may do

Sources in the NDA told The Federal that the “top BJP leadership” was likely to intercede and pacify the allies. “Some re-negotiation cannot be ruled out. Though it is unlikely that Manjhi or Kushwaha will be given more seats, there is a possibility that the BJP may switch some seats with the JD(U) and also allotted one or two seats more to them from its own share in the interest of saving the alliance,” a senior BJP leader who has been part of the negotiations told The Federal.

The leader, however, ruled out the possibility of the party “returning” the Tarapur seat to the JD(U), claiming that Nitish had signed off on Choudhary’s candidature from the constituency even before the seat-sharing deal was finalised.

It is also “highly unlikely” that the 29 seats allotted to Paswan’s LJP(R), a major point of consternation for Nitish, Manjhi and Kushwaha, will be reduced, said sources.