BJP, allies continue to haggle

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, JAN. 24. The BJP and its electoral partners in Bihar were engaged in hectic parleys to identify the seats each of them will contest under the seat-sharing agreement reached on Sunday.

After three rounds of talks they succeeded in identifying only 40 of the 324 seats in the State and indications are a settlement would be arrived at before the last date for withdrawal of nominations for the first phase of the election on February 27. The last date for filing nominations for the first phase ended today.

Though the four parties - BJP, Janata Dal (United), Samata Party and Bihar People's Party - arrived at an agreement on the number of seats each of them should contest, the last word on the subject has not yet been said. Each of them maintained that if the others do not stick to the agreement and withdraw their candidates from constituencies they are not supposed to contest, they will go ahead with their own candidates.

The JD(U) spokesperson, Mr. M. Raghupathy, regretted the statement attributed to the Union Surface Transport Minister and senior Samata leader, Mr. Nitish Kumar, expressing unhappiness over the seat-sharing accord and said such an attitude was not good.

``The JD(U) is fully satisfied with the agreement. We are absolutely confident that we will not only defeat the RJD but the BJP alliance will get two-thirds majority in the Assembly,'' Mr. Raghupathy said. Simultaneously, the four parties are preparing to launch a joint campaign and a common manifesto to give a decisive edge to the combine over the ruling RJD.Talking to reporters, the BJP Bihar unit president, Mr. Nand Kishore Yadav, said ``there will be no difficulty in identifying the seats as also asking candidates to withdraw in case of those belonging to any of the NDA partners''.

Talks on Orissa

In a related development, leaders of the BJP and the Biju Janata Dal began talks in the presence of the Union Home Minister, Mr. L.K. Advani, on seat-sharing for the Orissa Assembly elections.

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