'BJP should contest 102 seats in Bihar'

Patna, Aug 21: BJP ally Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP) said on Friday that the Amit Shah-led party should contest 102 seats in the upcoming Bihar assembly elections and leave the remaining for its allies.

"The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) should contest from 102 of 243 Bihar assembly seats in next polls and it should leave remaining seats for its allies," RLSP chief Upendra Kushwaha, the union minister of state of human resource development, told mediapersons here.

Kushwaha said that in last assembly polls in 2010, BJP had contested 102 seats and its ally Janata Dal-United (JD-U) contested from 141.

"Last time, there was only one ally but this time there are three allies and BJP should concentrate to contest like last time," he said.

Kushwaha said that RLSP wants to contest 67 seats and the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) should be given 74 seats.

"But as there is another ally Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) of former chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi, BJP can adjust some seats for it also," he said.

Kushwaha has made this statement when BJP president Amit Shah was on a day long visit to Patna. Shah has reportedly discussed the seat sharing issue with his senior party leaders of Bihar.

Earlier this year, Shah announced his party wanted to win 185 of the 243 assembly seats on its own strength.

On the other hand, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the ruling JD-U have decided to contest 100 seats each, leaving 40 to the Congress and three to the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).