Bihar Elections 2020: BJP's Devendra Fadnavis & Sushil Modi meet Nitish's JDU leaders

BJP's Bihar election in-charge Devendra Fadnavis, State Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Modi and Union Minister Nityanand Rai on Saturday held a meeting with Janata Dal (United) leaders in Patna.

BJP and JD(U) have not announced the seat-sharing agreement for the Bihar Assembly polls yet. On October 2, Fadnavis attended a meeting with the top BJP leadership at Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s residence in Delhi over the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) situation for Bihar Assembly polls. Fadnavis had earlier held meetings with BJP leaders of the state unit.

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BJP will fight Bihar polls together with allies JD(U), LJP

After a long meeting of party leaders, including Home Minister Amit Shah and president JP Nadda besides those from the state, BJP general secretary Bhupender Yadav told reporters that talks with allies on the seat-sharing arrangement will be completed in a couple of days. Yadav is the party's in-charge for the state's affairs.

"A lot of development work has happened in Bihar and the NDA will fight the polls on the basis of this under the leadership of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. The BJP, JD(U) and the LJP will fight the polls strongly along with Jitan Ram Manjhi, who has joined hands with JD(U), and will form government again with a three/fourth majority," he said.

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Shah's presence in the meeting at Nadda's residence indicated that the BJP has virtually given a final shape to its position on the seat-sharing deal before it enters into the final round of talks with its allies. Official sources said the final seat-sharing arrangement is likely to be announced soon and the list of candidates for the first phase of polls will be out by October 4 or 5.

BJP had put some conditions for the alliance including the projection of Nitish Kumar as the Chief Minister face of NDA. LJP was earlier demanding that Chirag Paswan should be the Chief Ministerial candidate and should fight on 143 seats.

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Bihar assembly polls

Bihar assembly elections will be held in three phases - October 28, November 3, and 7 and the counting of votes will take place on November 10. In 2015, the JD(U), RJD, and Congress had fought the elections together under the Mahagathbandhan banner. On the other hand, the BJP-led NDA contested the elections with LJP and other allies.

RJD had emerged as the single largest party in the elections with 80 seats, followed by JD(U) at 71, and BJP (53). However, BJP got the largest vote share of 24.42% followed by RJD with 18.35% and JD(U) 16.83 per cent. Later on, differences emerged between the RJD and JD(U), resulting in Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s return to the NDA.

READ | Bihar's Grand Alliance Clinches Seat-sharing Deal For Assembly Polls; Announcement Likely In Evening

(Image credits: PTI)