Lok Sabha elections 2019: JDU wants seat sharing keeping Bihar poll results in mind

It is a fact that JDU - under Nitish Kumar- had emerged as the strongest party after Bihar assembly elections in 2015. It is also a fact that JDU had a terrible performance in the last Lok Sabha elections in the country.

PTI File photo

New Delhi: There may be some time for the Lok Sabha elections in the country but Janta Dal United (JDU) has already begun flexing muscles and has said any seat-sharing arrangement in Bihar should be done keeping in mind the outcome of the 2015 assembly elections here.

In 2015 state elections, JDU had emerged as the dominant party with 71 of 243 seats and had joined hands with several parties - including nemesis RJD - in a 'Mahagatbandhan' before parting ways and combining with NDA. BJP had won 53 seats. JDU has now sought to remind BJP about the numbers even though formal seat-sharing talks for the Lok Sabha elections next year have not yet begun. Several JDU leaders, according to news agency PTI, have said - on the condition of anonymity - that the results of the assembly elections were a show of the party's strength and that it cannot be ignored when distributing seats for the all-important elections next year.

BJP though is unlikely to buckle under any possible pressure and sources say that the party might use JDU's performance in the last Lok Sabha elections as a counter-argument. JDU had won two of 40 seats. Also, BJP earlier this month had admitted that while Nitish Kumar may be the face of NDA in Bihar, the elections next year would be fought under the leadership of PM Narendra Modi.

Political analysts though feel there is nothing much that is unique about JDU's latest posturing and term it as political manoeuvrings done by political parties ahead of major elections.

Rival parties in Bihar though are hoping it is this that breaks JDU's backbone. At a recent Zee News conclave, RJD's Tejashwi Yadav had predicted BJP to dump JDU in the time to come. "Nitish ji has said he will never join hands with BJP but that is exactly what he did. It was a betrayal and it would all come undone," he had said. "He can choose to come back to Mahagatbandhan if he desires but we will never join hands with him again."