That the Bharatiya Janata Party is willing to go to great lengths to accommodate prospective allies in Bihar is an indication of the intensity of the contest in the coming Assembly election. Both the Rashtriya Lok Samata Party, which is yet to prove its strength by contesting on its own, and the untested Hindustani Awam Morcha led by former Chief Minister Jiten Ram Manjhi, were able to bargain hard: the RLSP got 23 seats, and HAM 20. Neither has any ideological affinity with the BJP. Not surprisingly, this seems to have upset the existing equilibrium within the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance. Besides, under a behind-the-scenes agreement, some of the HAM candidates might be given the BJP ticket. For the Lok Jan Shakti Party led by Ram Vilas Paswan, which has been given 40 seats, the just-concluded seat-sharing arrangement with HAM is particularly distressing as the support bases of the two overlap in several constituencies. Both Mr. Paswan and Mr. Manjhi are seeking to project themselves as the sole representatives of Dalits, and they now find themselves on the same side of the political fence.
But going by the experience in the rival camp led by the Janata Dal(United) and the Rashtriya Janata Dal, which saw desertions by the Nationalist Congress Party and the Samajwadi Party, the BJP was keen that all partners were on board. Also, the party did not want a situation where it would have to look for post-election allies to form the government in the event of it falling just short of a majority. In Maharashtra last year, although the break-up with the Shiv Sena over seat-sharing was unavoidable, the party was forced to renegotiate the alliance with it after the election, though from a position of greater strength. But deciding on the number of seats for each partner is only the first hurdle in seat-sharing talks. In the close contest that the Bihar election is likely to be, all parties want a winnable seat. Thus the BJP will have to settle the rival claims of the LJP and HAM over several of the seats, and the JD(U) and the RJD will have to sort out their differences. The JD(U) is actually contesting fewer seats than it won five years ago; and the levels of discontent among aspirants for the ticket would be high. As for the RJD, which effectively gave up its claims for the leadership of the alliance, it is important to win as many seats as the JD(U) in order to avoid the possibility of being relegated as a junior partner permanently. Bihar is certainly witnessing a political churn. New parties and new alliances have given the election an added edge.
