Patna: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Tuesday announced the seat-sharing plan among the constituents of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) for the Bihar Assembly election. The BJP will contest 121 seats while Nitish's JD-U has 122 seats.
In a joint NDA press conference here, the Chief Minister said that the BJP has been given 121 seats, while the JD-U has got 122 seats.
He said that JD-U has given 7 seats to Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) from its quota, while BJP will give seats to Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP) from its quota. He said that talks between BJP and VIP are in the final stages.
He said, "We are not concerned with what someone speculates. We are working together and will do so."
Journalists present at the press conference also posed a question about whether the BJP will insist on having its own Chief Minister if it performed better than the JD(U) in the October-November polls.
Speculations in this regard have grown strong since the Lok Sabha polls of last year wherein both BJP and JD(U) contested 17 seats each and the former won all but the latter settled with all but one.
"Please be rest assured. Nitish Kumar will be our Chief Minister irrespective of which party gets how many seats", Sushil Kumar Modi said in reply to the question.
Earlier,Bihar BJP chief Sanjay Jaiswal reiterated that the NDA is contesting the Bihar polls under the leadership of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.
The party chief also said that its alliance with Nitish Kumar's JD(U) in Bihar is "unbreakable".
At same time Jaiswal emphasised that Nitish Kumar is "our leader in Bihar" . He added that LJP as ally at Centre:
Several leaders including Jaiswal, BJP Bihar in-charge Bhupendra Yadav, BJP's Bihar poll in-charge Devendra Fadnavis, JD-U state chief Vashisht Narayan Singh and Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi were present at the joint press meet.
(With inputs from agencies)