Sushil Modi : Prashant Kishor has made statement to benefit Opposition party

Prashant Kishor's statement that "JDU will contest more seats than the BJP and play the role of big brother, in the upcoming 2020 Bihar Vidhan Sabha elections " has caused tremors within the top leadership of the BJP. After Bihar President Sanjay Jaiswal now Bihar Deputy Chief Minister and senior BJP leader Sushil Modi has attacked JDU vice president Prashant Kishore in a tweet. 

Sushil Modi hits at Prashant Kishor

Sushil Modi has tweeted that " 2020 Bihar Vidhan sabha elections will be contested under the leadership of  Narendra Modi and Nitish Kumar. The seat-sharing between the two parties will be finalized by the top leadership of both JDU and BJP. But those who do not have any ideology, and have joined politics after collecting election data and running election campaign company,  are making a statement against the alliance dharma, are trying to benefit the opposition party .A person who is involved in profit-making business, first try to create market for himself, for them the interest of the country comes later ".

JDU bigger party: Kishor

Kishore had also said that JDU  wants to go with the same formula of seat-sharing, which was adopted in the 2010 assembly elections. "JDU had contested 141 seats and BJP 102 seats. Since Nitish Kumar is the face, then naturally, JDU  will be a bigger party and the ratio of seat-sharing between JDU and BJP should be 1.3:1 seats," said Kishor.

Prashant Kishor's statement has not gone down well with the top leadership of the Bihar BJP. Many BJP leaders feel that Kishore has made this statement at the behest of Bihar CM Nitish Kumar to put pressure on the BJP. Even after sharp criticism from the BJP,  JDU leaders are also in agreement with Prashant Kishor's statement, that JDU is a bigger party in Bihar than the BJP.

With  Prashant Kishor's statement on seat sharing, JDU has sent in a message loud and clear to the BJP  that,  they are not going to compromise less than 130 seats for JDU  out of 243 seats. BJP is on the back foot after losing Maharashtra and Jharkhand elections, and JDU wants to seize the opportunity.

Current scenario in Bihar

All major allies have deserted BJP, and they would not want to lose Nitish Kumar because in the last elections BJP  was defeated badly by the Nitish-Lalu led Mahagathbadhan. Mahagathbandhan had secured 178 seats, whereas the BJP alliance had secured  58 seats out of 243 seats. BJP JDU alliance, is a proven one with both the parties, winning 39 out of 40 seats in 2019 Lok sabha elections and 206 seats out of 243 seats in 2010 assembly elections, when they last fought together.

With 9 months away from the election, JDU  wants to settle the seat-sharing issue with BJP. Nitish Kumar and his close coterie, which includes Prashant Kishor are of the opinion that JDU, in no way can contest less than 125 seats. They believe that the BJP would try to marginalize Nitish Kumar after election results.