The Seat Sharing Is “Positive,” Says Bihar Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav

As the seat-sharing discussion in Bihar began, the Bihar deputy chief minister and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav said on Friday that the seat sharing talks are “very positive” among INDIA bloc partners.

When asked about the BJP, Tejashwi Yadav said that the party has nothing to say about BJP’s seat sharing nor it is concerned about BJP. “As far as we are concerned, there is no problem of any sort,” Tejaswi Yadav was heard saying in a video posted by the news agency ANI, ruling out the possibility of negative developments in the discussion.

According to a report, JD(U) (Janata Dal (United) and RJD sources had earlier said that both the parties would go by the 2015 Assembly formula. During which, both parties had contested an equal number of seats while providing a reasonable number of seats to the Congress party.

The report then said that JD (U) had demanded a minimum of 16 sitting Lok Sabha seats to contest in the upcoming general election. Currently, JD (U) has 16 seats in Bihar, while the Congress has only one. JD(U) has reportedly made a claim on Kishanganj seat, which is the only Congress seat in the state. A senior JD(U) leader communicated the party’s claim on the 17 seats to a senior Congress leader on Friday, The Indian Express reported citing sources.

A JD(U) leader, the newspaper quotes, had last week said that the JD(U) had won 16 seats (in the previous election) and was the runner-up in another seat. RJD, Congress and Left parties have to decide their share in the remaining 23 seats.

An RJD leader on the other hand had said that the practical formula is 17 seats each to RJD and JD(U), four to Congress to two to CPI(ML). If top leaders of RJD and JD(U) concede a little more, it could be 16 seats each to RJD and JD(U), five to Congress, two to CPI(ML) and one to CPI.