NDA Announces Seat-Sharing Arrangement In Bihar: LJP On Six, BJP, JD(U) To Contest On 17 Seats Each In 2019 

The Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) will contest six seats while the Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) and the Janata Dal-United (JD-U) will contest 17 seats each in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections in Bihar, BJP President Amit Shah announced on Sunday (23 December).

The BJP and the JD-U also agreed to give a Rajya Sabha seat to LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan as part of the arrangement.

"The BJP and the JD-U will contest 17 seats each while the LJP will contest six seats in Bihar in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections," Shah said after an hour-long meeting with Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Paswan.

Shah said they have agreed to contest under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He expressed confidence that the National Democratic Alliance would win more seats in Bihar in 2019 than it did in 2014.

Of the 40 Lok Sabha seats in the state, the BJP had won 22 out of 30 it contested while the LJP won six out of seven it contested. The JD-U, then facing off against the NDA, had managed wins only on two seats.

Upendra Kushwaha-led Rashtriya Lok Samta Party (RLSP), now a constituent of the United Progressive Alliance, had won all three seats it contested as part of the NDA alliance then. Kushwaha, on Friday (21 December), joined hands with the UPA vowing to throw out the NDA government from power in the coming Lok Sabha elections.