PATNA, June 10 -- Union minister and LJP (RV) national president Chirag Paswan's announcement to contest Assembly elections in Bihar has alarmed the NDA partners, the BJP and the JD(U), who are treading a cautious path. Addressing a party meeting at Ara on Sunday, Paswan had said that his party would contest on all 243 seats of Bihar. "I will contest elections for the sake of my own people," he said, opening a Pandora'a Box of speculation of a possible 2020 Assembly elections re-take when his party, then a united LJP walked out of the NDA to contest independently. However, BJP and the JD(U) were quick to defend Chirag and ruled out the possibility of any disunity in alliance. "He is talking about contesting 243 seats by NDA and winning them. He talked about NDA. Earlier, he had met CM Nitish Kumar and took his blessings. He meant to say that all 243 seats were equally important for the NDA," said JD(U) national spokesperson. BJP spokesperson Prem Ranjan Patel also echoed the same. "He had already said that there was no vacancy for the CM," said Patel. "Chirag contesting Assembly polls would benefit and strengthen the NDA," said HAM-S minister Santosh Suman. During the last assembly elections, Chirag's united LJP walked out of the alliance after it was offered 22 seats. "It put candidates on 134 of the 243 Assembly seats but BJP or the JD(U) were not at all perturbed with Chirag's claim," said a BJP leader. Chirag's aggressive posturing is being viewed as an attempt to gain political leverage for his party ahead of seat-sharing talks with NDA allies, with bigger partners BJP and JD(U) said to be eyeing 100 seats each. While the Union minister, citing his party's 100% strike rate in last year's Lok Sabha polls, has been reportedly demanding 40 seats, other allies such as Jitan Ram Manjhi's Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) and the Rashtiya Lok Morcha (RLM) of Upendra Kushwaha are also learnt to have demanded a handful of seats. LJP-RV, which has five MPs in Lok Sabha, was expecting to get the lion's share among the smaller allies and might contest 25 to 28 Assembly seats. HAM was likely to receive 6 to 7 seats, while RLM might be allotted 4 to 5 seats, sources said. Chirag's party contested the 2020 polls alone and secured almost 5.66% vote share, was seen as a key factor in bringing down the JD(U)'s tally from 71 in 2015 to 43, thus relegating it to the third position behind the RJD and BJP. BJP and JD(U) leaders assert that it was all pressure tactics to get a greater share in seat-sharing, which would be taken up in July and finalised by August. "BJP leaders are understanding all this and keeping a close watch. The party will not succumb to pressures," said a senior BJP leader. In the Lok Sabha elections, the BJP contested 17 seats, JD(U) 16, LJP(RV) 5, and HAM and RLM one each. While the BJP had a slight edge in the parliamentary polls, sources said the JD(U) is expected to contest one or two more seats than the BJP this time around. Experts differ on the issue. Some claim it to be a pure pressure tactic, another calls it a 'BJP ploy to weaken Nitish Kuymar further.' "It seems that Chirag wants to expand the reach of his party beyond a caste party of Paswans, as it is seen. He wants to include various other voting blocs, such as the youth and women. That's the reason why he says he wants to contest from an unreserved seat," said Prof Gyanendra Yadav, associate professor of sociology, College of Commerce. Former director of AN SInha Institute of Social Studies DM Diwakar differed. "He is doing this at the behest of BJP to weaken the JD(U) further. He doesn't have the candidates for all 243 Assembly elections. This is the tested formula of the BJP," said Diwakar....