BJP seals the deal with LJP after six-seat offer
NEWDELHI: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has sealed a deal with its ally, the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP), for the 2019 parliamentary election with an offer for six Lok Sabha seats and one Rajya Sabha seat, two leaders familiar with negotiations between the two sides said.
Of the six parliamentary seats, Ram Vilas Paswan’s party will get five in Bihar and another in Uttar Pradesh or Jharkhand.
Paswan, a 72-year-old socialist veteran, is a nine-term Lok Sabha member and wants to move to Parliament’s Upper House on health grounds. The Rajya Sabha seat will go to him, both leaders cited above confirmed. Neither wished to be identified.
BJP chief Amit Shah and LJP’S parliamentary board chairman Chirag Paswan are likely to announce the arrangement at a press conference on Saturday. On Wednesday, the LJP asked the BJP to finalise the seat sharing arrangement by December 31.
The Friday deal comes at the end of the week which saw LJP leaders, including Chirag Paswan, airing their seeming dissatisfaction and the BJP scrambling to assuage its ally.
Ram Vilas Paswan and his son Chirag met finance minister Arun Jaitley in his parliament complex office in the morning to conclude seat distribution talks, which remained incomplete after a Thursday evening meeting at the residence of Shah.
“Talks are on, we will disclose details at a later date,” Chirag Paswan, 35, said after meeting Jaitley.