Patna, December 21: After days of negotiations, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) on Friday finalised a seat-sharing pact for Lok Sabha seats in Bihar ahead of the 2019 general elections. As per the formula, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Janata Dal-United will contest an equal number of 17 seats each, leaving the rest of the six seats to Ram Vilas Paswan's Lok Janshakti Party (LJP).

BJP chief Amit Shah, Bihar chief minister and JD(U) president Nitish Kumar and LJP supremo Ram Vilas Paswan would make the formal announcement regarding the seat-sharing arrangement on Saturday. Apart from six Lok Sabha seats, the BJP is also believed to have agreed to give a Rajya Sabha seat from its quota to the LJP. Sources in the BJP told IANS a final arrangement of seats would be formalised after a meeting of the BJP and LJP leaders with Nitish Kumar.

In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP had contested from 30 seats and won 22, while the LJP won six seats and lost one. The Rashtriya Lok Samta Party (RLSP), which is now a part of the Mahagathbandhan (Grand Alliance) in Bihar, bagged three. In 2014, the Janata Dal-United (JD-U) had contested on its own but performed poorly. It had won only two seats.

The difference had emerged when the JD(U) insisted seat-sharing for 2019 should be on the performance in 2015 Bihar assembly elections. JD(U) won 71 seats, while BJP got 53 in 2015 Bihar Assembly elections. However, the BJP had claimed the party would contest all the 22 seats it had won in 2014 general elections. Later, the two parties agreed to contest an equal number of seats in Bihar in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Dec 21, 2018 06:59 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).