Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) leader Chirag Paswan on Tuesday said his party had no issues with the seat sharing deal arrived at between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Hindustani Awam Morcha(HAM) of Jitan Ram Manjhi.
"If you talk of seat sharing, there is absolutely no formula for Jitan Ram Manjhi. His party has never contested the Vidhan Sabha elections, nor was with us in the Lok Sabha elections. We have no issues with whatever seats are being given to him(Manjhi). Manjhi is a prominent leader of our state(Bihar) and plays a very important role in our alliance, and we respect that,"Paswan said at a press conference here.
"We want to make it clear that Jitan Ram Manjhi and Upendra Kushwaha are like our family members. To fight the Bihar assembly polls with full strength and with the help of our alliance partners is our priority. We cannot ever think of moving out from the alliance for any reason. There can be some differences within our party(LJP) and this is the reason we had a meeting late last night," Paswan added.
Paswan said the LJP was not upset with the 40 seats allocated to them for the Bihar Assembly polls, but slightly shocked and taken aback, as it was not the number of seats that was promised to them.
"BJP President Amit Shah met me yesterday and assured that there will be an adjustment of seats if there are any differences. There is no question of any strife within the party as the LJP has never believed in numbers. Our goal is to ensure the NDA Government's victory in eradicating 'jungle raj' from Bihar, which is why the numbers don't matter," Paswan said.
Bharatiya Janata Party president Amit Shah on Monday announced that his party would contest 160 seats, while Jitan Ram Manjhi's Hindustan Awam Morcha (HAM) would fight on 20 seats, thereby bringing an end to the ongoing tussle over seat-sharing for the Bihar Assembly polls.
Shah further announced that Ram Vilas Paswan's Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) would contest 40 seats and the Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP) would battle it out for 23 seats.
The term of the 243-member Bihar Assembly election comes to an end on November 29. The polls in the state will begin on October 12 and end on November 5. Counting of votes will take place on November 8.