Nitish unhappy with alliance partners seat-sharing deal

Both Kumar and Jha had booked their tickets from Patna to New Delhi on the same flight on Sunday. They are even learnt to have collected their boarding passes. While Jha came to the airport on time and took his seat on the plane, Kumar did not, even though his supporters had checked in his luggage.

Minutes before the aircraft was supposed to take-off, airport authorities were informed that the Union Agriculture Minister had cancelled his programme. His luggage was then off-loaded from the aircraft. The task of identifying the seats to be contested by each constituent is likely to resume after his return.

Kumar, all set to leave for the Capital, received the news about the seat-sharing agreement being clinched. Details of the pact, as they trickled down, left him very upset. "The allocation of 90 seats to the Samata is much below our expectations," he told reporters in Patna. "It is injustice keeping in view the party’s mass-base, but we’ll abide by the decision," he said.

After confabulating with his supporters, an angry Kumar is said to have deferred his return to the Capital by a day. He is learnt to have conveyed his feelings to his party colleague and Defence Minister George Fernandes.