Patna: Union minister and Rashtriya Lok Samta Party chief Upendra Kushwaha met Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Tejashwi Yadav in Bihar on Friday evening, leading to speculation that the seat sharing agreement between the BJP and JD(U) could trigger his exit from the ruling NDA.
The meeting, held at the Arwal Circuit guest house, comes just after BJP chief Amit Shah and JD(U) supremo Nitish Kumar announced in Delhi that the two parties have agreed to contest the 2019 Lok Sabha election from equal number of seats.
Sources told News18 that both BJP and JD(U) would contest from 17 seats each out of the 40 on offer, leaving eight for the two other NDA allies - LJP and RLSP - in the state.
While four seats are expected to go to Ram Vilas Paswan’s LJP, Upendra Kushwaha’s RLSP would contest from the remaining two, a number that is unlikely to satisfy him as he had asked for a minimum three seats, like the 2014 elections.
The JD(U) had on Tuesday said it had negotiated a 'good deal' with the BJP on the seat sharing agreement, but both the allies had said they were not privy to the discussions.
RLSP's national general secretary Madhaw Anand had told News18 that his party won't accept two seats under any formula. "We won three out of three seats in 2014 and our party has expanded its base since then. So there is no question of agreeing on two seats," he said.
It argues that it backed Narendra Modi as Prime Ministerial candidate when Nitish Kumar left the NDA and after his return to the fold it was BJP's responsibility to take care of their allies.
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