Bihar Election: BJP CEC to meet on Oct 4 to decide candidates; LJP may settle for 30 seats

Filing of nomination papers for the Bihar Assembly elections commenced on Thursday when the notification was issued for the first of the three-phase poll. To decide its candidates for the upcoming polls, the Central Election Committee (CEC) of the BJP will meet on October 4. The last date of the nomination process is October 8.

PM Modi to take part in the meeting

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party leaders JP Nadda, Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari, Thawarchand Gehlot, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Shahnawaz Hussain, Vijaya Rahatakar besides Bihar BJP in-charge Bhupendra Yadav, election in-charge Devendra Fadnavis, state president Sanjay Jaiswal and Bihar Deputy CM Sushil Modi are likely to attend the meeting concerning party candidates in Bihar. Nadda had announced his new team recently but the CEC has not been reconstituted. According to ANI sources, as per the protocol, whenever PM Modi takes part in any meeting, the COVID-19 RT-PCR test is done for the participants. They said leaders have also been asked to minimise interaction with others after giving samples for tests. The first list of candidates will be announced after meeting of CEC.

LJP to settle for 30 seats?

Earlier, top BJP leaders, including Home Minister Amit Shah and party president J P Nadda, held a meeting with Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) chief Chirag Paswan on Thursday. The purpose of the meeting was to thrash out a seat-sharing arrangement with allies for the Bihar assembly polls. Sources have informed LJP may settle for 30 seats in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

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According to the source, "LJP has become dim and will have to accept all the conditions of Nitish Kumar as cleared by top authorities of NDA." BJP has put some conditions for the alliance including the projection of Nitish Kumar as the Chief Minister face of NDA. LJP was earlier demanding that Chirag Paswan should be the Chief Ministerial candidate and should fight on 143 seats.

In 2015, it contested 42 seats and won two. The JD(U) was then part of the opposition alliance which decisively defeated the NDA. The strained relations between the JD(U), headed by Kumar, and the LJP have put the alliance under pressure as BJP attempts to play a balancing role. Polling for the state's 243 seats will be held on October 28, November 3 and 7. Votes will be counted on November 10.

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(With agency inputs)