Inside the 20-minute hush-hush meeting between Amit Shah, Nitish Kumar in Patna

Amid speculations about seat-sharing talks between NDA allies JDU and BJP, BJP senior leader Amit Shah held a secret 20-minute meeting with JD(U) leader and chief minister Nitish Kumar at a hotel in Patna on  Thursday. The brief meeting comes nearly a week after Amit Shah’s first trip to Patna for the BJP core committee meeting, which ended without him meeting Nitish.

Amit Shah arrived in Patna on Wednesday night on a two-day visit to Bihar to kickstart the BJP campaign by meeting leaders and workers of all 20 districts in the Dehri and Begusarai region. Before leaving for Delhi on Thursday morning, Nitish had reached the Maurya Hotel in Patna to meet him. JDU's working president, Sanjay Jha, and minister Vijay Chaudhary accompanied the Chief Minister.  BJP's Bihar in-charge Vinod Tawde, Deputy Chief Minister Samrat Chaudhary, State President Dilip Jaiswal, former President Sanjay Jaiswal, and state organisation general secretary Bhikhubhai Dalsania were also present at the hotel.

Though both parties are mum about what transpired during the meeting, word is that seat sharing was on the agenda, especially in the wake of reports of conflicts between the NDA constituents.

The two leaders held lengthy discussions regarding the assembly seats being sought by other NDA  constituents, particularly Chirag Paswan and Jitan Ram Manjhi. It is believed that the entire NDA seat-sharing deal was nearly finalized during this meeting, according to local media reports.

The report added that Nitish appeared pleased after the meeting, hinting that the NDA has achieved a breakthrough.

The meeting comes in the wake of reports that Paswan, Manjhi, and Upendra Kushwaha are not satisfied with the seat-sharing agreement. Speculations are that the JD(U) wants to negotiate with just the BJP and demands that the BJP talk with  Paswan, Manjhi, and Kushwaha.

Paswan's Lok Janshakti Party-Ram Vilas (LJPR) is openly demanding 30-40 seats, while Manjhi’s Hindustani  Awam Morcha has started making a do-or-die bid for 15 seats. Kushwaha expects 8-10 seats. Meanwhile, the final decisions on seat allocations for Bhagalpur, Katihar, and Seemanchal assembly constituencies will possibly come after September.  Shah will lead a review meeting on the 27th regarding the Bhagalpur, Katihar, and Seemanchal assembly constituencies. In this meeting, Amit Shah will evaluate all the seats based on the 2020 election results. He will seek feedback from party workers regarding these assembly seats. He will then share his opinion with all NDA leaders and gather feedback on the candidates. However, the location for this conference has not been decided.