Bickering continues as NDA identifies seats

NEW DELHI, JANUARY 30: After over a fortnight's haggling at one point it seemed the alliance had collapsed the NDA partners today finally ...

NEW DELHI, JANUARY 30: After over a fortnight’s haggling at one point it seemed the alliance had collapsed the NDA partners today finally managed to identify the seats each party would contest in the forthcoming assembly elections in Bihar.

But the Bihar People’s Party, led by the mercurial Anand Mohan, continues to give them anxious moments. Mohan refused to commit himself despite being offered the contentious Saharsa seat for wife Lovely. While refusing to append his signature to the final agreement, which was signed by BJP vice-president Kailashpati Mishra, JD(U) chief Sharad Yadav and Samata Party president Jaya Jaitly, he also threatened to pull out of the elections in protest against the denial of the seats of his choice to his party.

Leaders of the alliance partners continued with the task of identifying seats till this morning. A list of constituencies each party would contest was duly prepared, which was signed by the BJP, JD(U) and Samata representatives. But Mohan, who had staged a walkoutsoon after midnight, refused to put in his signature. Paswan and Mishra are learnt to have gone to persuade him this morning to append his signature, but to no avail.

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“I have spoken to PM Atal Behari Vajpayee and conveyed him my decision,” Mohan said this afternoon. “I told him BPP has always stood solidly behind NDA during moments of crisis, but we’ve still been given a raw deal by forcing us to accept difficult seats.” While NDA partners continued with their efforts to persuade him to see reason, they simultaneously went ahead with their plan of releasing the list. The BJP was first off the mark when it announced the names of its candidates for the 150 seats it has been allotted as part of the seat-sharing agreement.

Rebellion in JD (U)

Rebellion in the Bihar unit of the JD (U) against Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan is out in the open with state general secretary Mangani Lal Mandal announcing that he will resign his post as well as his membership of the party’s central parliamentaryboard. Speaking to The Indian Express, Mandal was highly critical of the role played by JD(U) leaders in selecting and finalising the list of candidates for the assembly polls — (ENS)