After having almost sealed the seat sharing issue for Bihar Assembly elections, the National Democratic Alliance faced another hurdle at the last moment on Saturday when Hindustani Avam Morcha chief Jitan Ram Manjhi decided to demand more seats.
Manjhi, who was Bihar chief minister for nine months from late May 2014 to February 2015, has been offered 15 seats by the Bharatiya Janata Party but he is demanding a few more claiming to be the tallest Mahadalit leader in the state.
According to sources, Manjhi on Saturday evening met BJP President Amit Shah at the latter's residence in Delhi twice and held seat-sharing talks when he demanded more seats. BJP offered five more seats to Manjhi with the condition that candidates for these seats contest under its symbol lotus. But Manjhi rejected the offer saying he wanted all his candidates to contest on HAM symbol of telephone.
After a meeting of Shah and Bihar BJP leaders including Sushil Kumar Modi, Nand Kishore Yadav, CP Thakur and Ashwini Chaubey, it was decided to hold another round of talks with Manjhi.
But Bihar leaders conveyed to Shah that Manjhi was demanding much more than his strength and pressed for a quick decision. They pointed out that Manjhi's aides were putting pressure on him for more seats.
NDA had planned to declare seat-sharing for Bihar on Saturday but now the announcement is likely take place on Sunday.
The Bharatiya Janata Party has decided to contest on 160 of the 243 seats leaving only 83 for its allies.
Bihar will vote in five phases on October 12, 15, 28, November 1 and 5 to elect a new Assembly. Counting of votes will take place on November 8.
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