NDA seat sharing for Bihar polls done, 160 seats for BJP

After hectic rounds of discussions, the deadlock between the leaders of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has finally been resolved. The Bharatiya Janata Party will be fighting the polls on 160 seats, while the allies have been given 83 seats to fight on.

Ram Vilas Paswan's Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) will be fighting on 40 seats, Upendra Kushwaha's Rashtriya Lok Samta Party (RLSP) will be fighting on 23 seats and after discussions and debates, Jitan Ram Manjhi's party Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) will be contesting on 20 seats. However, BJP chief Amit Shah said that Manjhi's HAM will be fighting on a few seats of the BJP as well.

While seat sharing formula with other alliance partners had been finalised on Sunday, Manjhi had been seeking more seats to fight the elections. Manjhi's main point of contention was believed to be based on the fact that his party needs to contest at least 10 percent of the total number of assembly seats to be considered a regional player.

Now that the seat sharing formula has been finalised, the BJP's Central Election Committee is likely to meet on Tuesday to decide on its candidates for the elections.

The five-phase polling for the 243-member assembly begins from October 12 and concludes on November 5.