RJD gets 173 seats, LJP 63

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After over a month long hard negotiations, the RJD and LJP have reportedly clinched the seat-adjustment for this year’s Bihar elections. Finally, the consensus that the two parties have arrived at gives the Ram Vilas Paswan-led LJP 63 Assembly seats, while the RJD will pocket about 173 seats.

Sources said that the RJD-LJP combine have hammered out consensus on 236 out of the total 243 Assembly seats in Bihar, which is likely to go for the state elections in October-end or November first week. The two parties are yet to finalise their arrangement on the remaining seven seats, which the LJP is claiming from the RJD.
In the last Assembly elections in Bihar in 2005, the RJD had won 60 seats while the LJP had bagged 12. “The logic behind the seats being given to the LJP is that the party will get all its sitting constituencies along with where it had come second. Further, the LJP is being given those seats where the RJD had either finished third or fourth. Also, the seats which the RJD had given to the CPI in the last elections are being given to the LJP. They all add up to 63,” sources close to the development revealed.
The RJD had come second on 98 seats in the 2005 elections. In the earlier elections, the RJD had bagged 78 while the LJP had won 17 seats. “A decision will soon be made on the remaining seven seats, after which a final announcement will be made,” added the sources.
The consensus between the parties was expedited after Mr Paswan directly took up the matter with RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav about the media reports highlighting their talks having run into a wall, revealed the sources.
As part of the electoral strategy that the two parties have hammered out the LJP is likely to field maximum number of upper caste candidates to cash in on the perceived fear among the caste groups about the policies of Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar regarding giving nominal rights to tillers on the land. While the RJD will be fielding a large number of Rajput candidates, the LJP will be fielding a good number of candidates from the Bhumihar (land-owning caste).
In the past, the LJP had fielded Bihar strongman like Munna Shukla, Rajan Tiwari among its ranks, which is likely to be repeated this time again.