BJP to contest 17 LS seats in Bihar

New Delhi: BJP president Amit Shah on Sunday announced that his party would contest on 17 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar, while an equal number of seats will go to the Janata Dal-United. Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan led Lok Jantantrik Party (LJP) will contest on six seats.

Talking to media persons, Shah said that the alliance would contest the coming Lok Sabha polls under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He also said that there was no difference of any kind within the NDA in Bihar.

The BJP president further said seat allocation would be decided in the coming days.

Growing discontentment among the NDA allies in Bihar came out in the open when LJP’s Chirag Paswan told the media that the BJP had digressed to ‘non-issues’ like the Ram temple and had demanded urgent steps to return to the ‘real issue’ of development.

Chirag had also expressed unhappiness over the sharing of seats in the state.

Meanwhile, RLSP chief Upendra Kushwaha, after pulling out of the NDA on December 10 over the issue of seat allocation for 2019 Lok Sabha elections, joined the UPA on December 20 to be a part of the grand alliance.

JD-U had contested the last Assembly elections in alliance with the RJD against the BJP and even formed the government, but later defected to the NDA and formed the government with the BJP’s support in the state.

[source_without_link]ANI[/source_without_link]