The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) announced on Monday the broad contours of a seat-sharing agreement with its allies as it prepared for the upcoming Jharkhand Assembly elections. The party asserted the importance of contesting elections “together” under the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) banner.
The ECI is set to announce the dates for the Jharkhand Assembly elections, along with Maharashtra, in the afternoon at around 3.30 pm during a press briefing today.
Himanta Biswa Sarma, the BJP’s election in-charge and Chief Minister of Assam, disclosed that the All Jharkhand Students Union Party (AJSUP) will contest between nine and eleven seats.
The Janata Dal (United), led by Nitish Kumar, will be allocated two seats, while discussions are ongoing with Chirag Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas).
“The seat sharing is almost final with the AJSU with one seat becoming a hurdle where either the BJP or the AJSU will compromise. AJSU will get between 9-11 seats. The JDU seats are final too, i.e. 2, unless some seats are negotiated with the party high command. Chirag Paswan is not in India and he will return on October 16 when the seat sharing will be finalised,” he said, The Indian Express reported.
Sarma mentioned that the BJP will announce its first list of candidates shortly after the Election Commission of India (ECI) reveals the election dates. He mentioned that the party will hold one more meeting in the state to discuss election-related matters, after which the BJP’s parliamentary board will give final approval.
In the previous election, the AJSU and BJP contested separately, competing against each other in at least 13 constituencies.
Sarma emphasised the need for collaboration, stating, “We don’t have any problem with seat sharing. More than being stuck, it is important that they fight the elections together. I have not gone into the mathematics of it, but it is important to win the elections and according to the ways of the NDA, we will do election campaigns together.”