Samata eyeing Bihar CM8217;s post, BJP upset

NEW DELHI, JANUARY 10: The BJP and the Samata Party, two principal partners in the National Democratic Alliance NDA, are on a collision ...

NEW DELHI, JANUARY 10: The BJP and the Samata Party, two principal partners in the National Democratic Alliance NDA, are on a collision course in Bihar on the issues of the chief ministerial candidate and the seat-sharing arrangement.

Firing the first salvo after the announcement of the poll schedule, BJP vice-president J P Mathur on Monday said the Central ministers should not set their eyes on the chief minister8217;s post.

8220;It is not healthy to be over-ambitious, to swap Central ministership with the chief minister8217;s post,8221; he told newsmen this afternoon.

His statement, if put into effect, would rule out the possibility of Union Ministers Nitish Kumar and Ram Vilas Paswan, who are claimants to the top job in the state, from grabbing the post, thereby paving the way for a BJP candidate.

On the issue of seat-sharing, the Samata Party, citing the results of the 1995 Assembly elections, says that it was ahead of the other NDA allies in 124 segments and, hence, has staked it claim on these seats.

TheBJP refutes this claim. 8220;The Samata Party, which fought the last Assembly elections in alliance with the CPIM-L can claim only 85 seats, as it was ahead of the BJP and other NDA partners in these constituencies,8221; asserted a senior leader from the state. 8220;Our party, on the other hand, will contest at least 186 Assembly seats as we were ahead of the other allies in these seats.8221;

Interestingly, both the BJP and the Samata Party have prepared their arguments on the basis of the results of the 1995 Assembly elections. 8220;We will, under no circumstance, settle for a lesser number of seats,8221; the state BJP leader added.

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Compounding their woes is the claim being made by the JD U and Anand Mohan8217;s Bihar People8217;s Party. While the latter, again citing the 1995 election results as the basis, says that it should get at least 31 seats, the JD U component, which was then part of the larger Janata Dal and had fought the last Assembly polls under the leadership of Laloo Prasad Yadav, has, in private circles,demanded 50-60 seats for its candidates.

How these squabbling NDA partners reconcile their conflicting claims is something which no leader is willing to throw light on at this juncture. At stake is the leadership of the coalition in the post-poll scenario. But it is clear that there will be some real hard bargaining from all sides.

The BJP Central election committee will meet here on January 18 to finalise the list of its candidates for the Assembly elections to the states of Bihar, Orissa, Haryana and Manipur.