Patna, Oct. 8 -- Bickering among the ruling NDA partners in Bihar over seat sharing has come to the fore, even though the BJP, which held a meeting on Wednesday on the issue, claimed that everything is fine in the alliance.

Union minister Jitan Ram Manjhi said that he was "requesting and not making a claim" that his Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) be given a respectable number of seats, otherwise the party might not contest the election.

Another Union minister Chirag Paswan's Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas), which had earlier settled for around 20-22 seats, is now asking for at least 25 more.

The Assembly elections will be held on November 6 and 11 in the state, while votes will be counted on November 14.

At a time when the BJP's Election Committee meeting to discuss the seat sharing arrangements among the NDA constituents was on in Patna, Manjhi told reporters: "It will be a humiliation for me and my party, if we are not given at least 15 seats in the coming assembly polls. If we get 15, we can easily win at least 8-9 seats and will become a recognised party".

Even after 10 years of establishment, HAM remains an unrecognised party. "I have been helping the NDA for a long time. So, I am requesting the NDA leaders and not making a claim. My party would prefer not to contest the polls, if we don't get a respectable number of seats. But, I must make it clear that even if we don't contest polls, we will keep working for the NDA partners in the polls," Manjhi said.

Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.