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 in Patna, 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."
Earlier, Bihar BJP chief Sanjay Jaiswal reiterated that the NDA is contesting the Bihar polls under the leadership of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.
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.
The BJP on Tuesday also released its first list of 27 candidates for the three-phase Bihar assembly polls, starting from October 28.
The names include international shooter Shreyasi Singh from Jamui constituency and former MP Hari Manjhi from Bodhgaya.
Singh, daughter of former union minister Digvijay Singh, had joined the saffron party on Sunday.
All the candidates are for the election's first phase in which 71 seats of the 243-member assembly will go to polls.
The party released the list after the ruling NDA announced its seat-sharing formula for the Bihar assembly polls under which JD(U) will contest on 122 seats and BJP 121.
The list of candidates include three ministers in the Nitish Kumar's cabinet-Prem Kumar, Ram Narayan Mandal and Vijay Kumar Sinha.
The BJP has named Munni Devi from Shahpur assembly seat in the Buxar district. There was speculation in the media that former Bihar Director General of police Gupteshwar Pandey, who took VRS and later joined the JD(U), will enter into the fray from this seat.
Former state minister and the RJD's old timer Raghvendra Pratap Singh finds place in the BJP's list from his traditional Barhara constituency in the Bhojpur district.
Singh was denied ticket by Lalu Prasad's party in 2015 elections despite being a sitting member of the assembly. RJD had given ticket to Saroj Yadav, who won the seat in the previous election.
With IANS and PTI inputs