The Congress and Bahujan Samaj Party of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati have decided to put up candidates in all the 243 seats in Bihar.
With Bihar assembly polls scheduled later this year, both ruling NDA and RJD-LJP alliance have started burning the midnight oil trying to give final shape to the contentious issue of seat-sharing, with major partners eyeing the lion's share.
Other parties like the Congress and Bahujan Samaj Party of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati have decided to put up candidates in all the 243 seats in Bihar.
The Samajwadi Party and Left parties -- CPI-ML(L), CPI, and CPI-M are yet to decide the number of seats they will contest either alone or in alliance.
Given the high political stakes involved, the ruling JD(U) and BJP are treading cautiously on the crucial issue.
Snubbed by senior partner and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar after his photograph appeared with his Gujarat counterpart Narendra Modi in an advertisement in June, the BJP leadership, already grappling with internal party squabbles, is also under fire from workers with the reported bid by JD(U) to contest more seats it had contested in 2005.
JD(U) had in 2005 contested from 138 of the 243 seats, leaving 103 seats to BJP. The two had a friendly fight in two other constituencies.
"We will not concede any seat to the JD(U)," state BJP president Dr CP Thakur says, adding it would include four seats in the Patna Saheb parliamentary constituency.
JD(U) insiders say the party has staked claim for more seats, including Digha and Kumhrar in Patna Lok Sabha constituencies.
It is being believed that the chief minister is thinking of contesting from Digha assembly constituency in Patna.
There are also hitches on seats in Seemanchal, where the JD(U) is keen to field more candidates, buoyed by the entry of Md Taslimuddin, who has some influence over voters, particularly among Muslims in Kishanganj, Araria and Katihar.
In north and central Bihar, the JD(U) leaders feel that the party should claim more because of its increased vote share among the extremely backsward castes (EBCs) and mahadalits.
The chief minister is diplomatically handling the demands for transfer of some seats to JD(U).
"Since the elections are to be contested in alliance, no single party can contest all seats. We will decide on which seats to contest at an appropriate time," Kumar said.
In the opposition RJD-LJP camp, the scene is getting murkier with each passing day with Ramvilas Paswan's LJP reportedly demanding to contest 106 seats including the 50 which RJD had given to Congress in 2005.
Lalu Prasad's RJD has not officially reacted to the LJP's demand, with its poll managers finding it 'thoroughly unreasonable'.
The problem has aggravated due to RJD's demand for few sitting seats of the LJP, like Ghanshampur (Izhar Ahmed), Mahnar (Rama Singh), Bathnaha (Nagina Devi), Nabinagar (Dabloo Singh), Harsiddi (Maheshwar Singh) and Warisnagar (Vishwanath Paswan).
State LJP president Pashupati Kumar Paras, who held several rounds of talks with the RJD leaders, said there are some problems, but he has referred the matter to party chief Ram Vilas Paswan to decide.
Lalu Prasad said the party will accord top priority to winnability of candidates of either of the parties in the polls, instead of 'blind seat-sharing'.
A senior RJD leader, pleading anonymity said the party had so far offered 60 seats to the LJP out of which the latter had emerged victorious or finished second in roughly 40 in 2005.
The CPI-ML(Liberation), the major left party in Bihar, has decided to go it alone and contest at least 130 seats if the Left alliance did not come about.
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