Updated December 30th, 2019 at 18:25 IST
Bihar BJP boss slams Prashant Kishor; asks 'is he JDU chief to speak on seat-sharing?'
Bihar BJP President Sanjay Jaiswal has questioned authority of Prashant Kishor to talk on seat sharing, a day after he said that JDU will contest on more seats.
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A day after JDU Vice Prashant Kishor in an interview to Republic TV said that JDU will contest more seats than the BJP and play the role of big brother in the upcoming 2020 Bihar Vidhan Sabha elections, Bihar BJP President Sanjay Jaiswal has questioned the authority of Prashant Kishor to talk on seat sharing.
Jaiswal in a telephonic interview to Republic Media Network said: " The issue of seat-sharing will be discussed between the party Presidents Amit Shah and Nitish Kumar. Is Prashant Kishor the Party President? Who is he? We showed a large heart by giving JDU 17 seats in 2019 Lok Sabha elections despite the fact that JDU had won only 2 seats in 2014 Lok Sabha elections. Until and unless it comes from Nitish Kumar we are not going to take Prashant Kishor's statement seriously. Whatever our party high command will direct us, we will abide by that as the BJP chief is the supreme authority in my party."
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Kishore had also said that JDU wants to go with the same formula of seat-sharing which was adopted in 2010 assembly elections, in which the JDU had contested 141 seats and BJP 102 seats. Since Nitish Kumar is the face then the naturally JDU will be a bigger party and the ratio of seat-sharing between JDU and BJP should be 1.3 :1 seats."
READ: Prashant Kishor calls Nitish Kumar 'face of Bihar' & JD(U) 'bigger party' than BJP
Prashant Kishore statement has not gone down well top leadership of the Bihar BJP
Senior BJP leader and Bihar minister Nand kishore yadav said, "Our national President Amit Shah has already declared that NDA will contest Bihar elections under the leadership of Nitish Kumar then who is big brother or who is small doesn't matter. Nitish Kumar has just been re-elected as the Party President of JDU and the other office-bearers of the party have not been renominated. Henceforth Prashant Kishor is not a party functionary, therefore there is no need to comment on his statement on seat sharing ."
Even after sharp criticism from the BJP, JDU leaders are also in agreement with Prashant Kishor's statement that JDU is a bigger party in Bihar than the BJP. Bihar minister and senior JDU leader Shyam Rajak said that " Prashant kishore is a senior leader of the party and there is no doubt that Nitish Kumar and JDU will be in a bigger role ."
READ: BJP MP questions Prashant Kishor's remarks on Bihar seat-sharing
With Prashant Kishore's statement on seat sharing, JDU has sent in a message loud and clear to the BJP that, they are not going to compromise less than 130 seats for JDU out of 243 seats.
The narrative has been set by Prashant Kishor and now it has to be seen whether the BJP, which is on the back foot after losing Maharashtra and Jharkhand agrees to the demand of the JDU. All major allies have deserted BJP, and they would not want to lose Nitish Kumar because, in the last elections, BJP was defeated badly by the Nitish-Lalu led Mahagathbadhan. Mahagathbandhan had secured 178 seats whereas the BJP alliance had secured 58 seats out of 243 seats. BJP JDU alliance is a proven one with both the parties, winning 39 out of 40 seats in 2019 Lok sabha elections and 206 seats out of 243 seats in 2010 assembly elections when they last fought together.
READ: Prashant Kishor questions Cong silence, says lack of statement from Sonia Gandhi puzzling
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Published December 30th, 2019 at 18:25 IST
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