NDA ally RLSP rejects Amit Shah's formula of seat sharing in Bihar

Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP), an ally of the NDA government and led by Union Minister Upendra Kushwaha, has rejected BJP chief Amit Shah’s proposal of seat sharing in Bihar,a s per a report by CNN-News18.

The report said that Shah had proposed a seat-sharing formula in Bihar ahead of the Lok Sabha elections – 12 seats to JD(U), 6 to LJP, and 2 to RLSP – and the remaining 20 of the total 40 seats for the BJP. Kushwaha has outright rejected Shah’s formula for seat sharing.

The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in Bihar constitutes the Janata Dal (United) led by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, BJP, Ram Vilas Paswan's Lok Janshakti Party and the RLSP.

RLSP's response comes in the wake of a reports of a meeting between Amit Shah and Nitish Kumar in New Delhi related to seat sharing in Bihar.

The party had earlier blamed Nitish for "creating confusion" over the prospective political posturing in the eastern state.

"The confusion arose ever since Kumar returned to the BJP-led coalition last year. It is his party which keeps coming up with claims of being a big brother in the alliance and the chief minister being the face of the coalition in the Lok Sabha polls," RLSP national general secretary and spokesman Madhaw Anand had told the media.

Nagmani, one of the founding members of the RSLP, had earlier told the press: "It is unfortunate that the BJP is pampering the JD(U) which is left with no public support, while we are being belittled. We wonder if we are being indirectly told to quit the NDA and rush into the arms of the opposition Mahagathbandhan." He has been pitching that Kushwaha be made the face of the NDA in the state ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.

Kushwaha, an erstwhile confidant of Nitish Kumar, had floated the RLSP after quitting JD(U) in 2013. During the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the RSLP had contested for three seats and emerged victorious all of them. However, the party fared dismally in the Assembly polls a year later as it returned with a tally of two in a 243-seat Vidhan Sabha.