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BJP allies dissatisfied with seat-sharing deal

Tara Shankar Sahay in New Delhi

The Bharatiya Janata Party has decided to give 65 to 70 seats to its allies in Uttar Pradesh for the impending assembly election, a top party leader said on Wednesday.

He, however, added that the allies wanted more seats to be given to them.

"The BJP's central election committee has decided to concede 65 to 70 seats to allies, out of the 403 it is contesting in Uttar Pradesh," a veteran party leader told rediff.com.

BJP's allies in the state are Rashtriya Lok Dal of Ajit Singh, Janata Dal (United) of Sharad Yadav, Lok Janshakti Party of Ram Vilas Paswan, Lokjantnatrik Congress Party (without Naresh Agarwal) and Jantantrik Bahujan Samaj Party.

BJP chief K Jana Krishnamurthy chaired the meeting at the Race Course road residence of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, in which Union Home Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani also participated.

So far, according to the BJP leader, 32 seats have been allotted to Ajit Singh's RLD, which, however, wants a few more.

Significantly, Singh had earlier floated the proposal of carving out a separate state from Uttar Pradesh -- Harit Pradesh -- from its western districts, but threw in his lot with the BJP after he was offered the responsibility of managing the agriculture ministry.

The BJP leader pointed out that the JD (U) had so far been given 20 seats to fight. This was because party chief Sharad Yadav had successfully broken away four MPs from Mulayam Singh Yadav's Samajwadi Party, which is the BJP's main rival in the state.

"Talks (on seat-sharing) are still going on and by Thursday we hope to finalise the matter," the BJP leader pointed out.

According to him, Paswan's LJP has been given eight seats to contest whereas he wants at least 15.

Since half a dozen BSP MLAS have joined the LJP, Paswan feels that his party is entitled to fight at least 15 seats in the state.

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