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  • 4 months ago
This special report focuses on the escalating seat-sharing crisis within Bihar's NDA coalition. The deadlock involves key figures like Chirag Paswan, Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal (United), and the BJP, complicated by dissent from allies Jitan Ram Manjhi and Upendra Kushwaha. According to sources, 'Chirag Paswan is seeking a larger slice of the seed pie. He wants JDO seeds too'. This demand has met stiff resistance from the JDU, which has refused to cede any of its constituencies and has begun distributing party symbols to its candidates in a clear show of defiance. The infighting led to the cancellation of a scheduled press conference, and while a formula was later announced, the underlying tensions between the allies over specific seats continue to simmer, threatening the coalition's unity ahead of the polls.
Transcript
00:00And it's become all the more complicated for the NDA to figure this one out
00:09because sources are confirming to India today that Chirag Paswan is seeking a larger slice
00:15of the seed pie. He wants JDU seeds too and that's something that the JDU has put their
00:20foot down on saying there's no question of giving up any of their seeds. And this even
00:26as the JDU has decided to go ahead and start pledging seeds to candidates in clearly a
00:32symbolic message that's going across from the JDU that they will not budge and they're
00:36stubborn on their demands. They've already started pledging seeds to their candidates,
00:40making it very clear that any attempt to take away any of the seeds that they want will not
00:45work. The deadlock therefore continues between the BJP and the JDU on the seeds being allocated
00:51to the smaller allies, particularly Chirag Paswan. Rohit Singh is joining us with more details
00:58from Patna. Rohit, what's happening within the NDA? You know, there was supposed to be
01:03a press conference earlier today. That didn't happen. Does it look like their differences
01:07will be ironed out in the next 24 hours, Rohit?
01:09Well, see Akshata, the seed sharing formula and the issue that was going on for the last
01:19one week was settled yesterday when the numbers came out. 101 for BJP and JDU and 29 for Chirag
01:25and 6 each for Manji and Upendra Kushwaha. But soon after that declaration was made, we saw
01:31that two of the alliance partners started to crib. One was Jitana Rambanji, second was
01:37Upendra Kushwaha. Now both these leaders are in Patna today, they came to Patna and still
01:41they are, in fact, what sources are telling, upset with the fact that why did Chirag Paswan
01:46in fact get so many seeds. That is one bone of contention. And the second is that there
01:53are some, there are few seeds on which, which is being held by the JDU that Chirag Paswan wants
02:00those seeds for his own party. There are some seeds that BJP wants of the JDU, JDU wants
02:06from the BJP. So it's like the tussle is going on over which party gets which seed to fight.
02:13And that is why we saw that these differences in fact spiraled throughout the day today because
02:18of which the issue was not settled. And in fact, 4pm when the scheduled press conference
02:24was yesterday declared had to be cancelled hurriedly because the issue in fact continued.
02:31And that is why we are seeing that still, as I speak, hectic negotiations are going on in
02:36the NDA camp. And we are expecting that by tomorrow, the final list of candidates will be out.
02:42However, one thing is very interesting to note that Janata Dal United has already started
02:47distributing symbols to few of their candidates whose seeds are confirmed. And today they have
02:53collected the symbol from Chief Minister Nidish Kumar also.
02:56It's also messaging that the JDU is not willing to budge on any of their demands. They've made
03:01it very clear to their allies in the NDA. Thanks very much Rohit for those details.
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