Patna, Jan 8 (IANS): JD-U leader and Bihar minister Bijendra Yadav on Monday asserted that his party is firm on contesting 16 Lok Sabha seats in the state and will not compromise on its stand.
"We have 16 MPs representing Bihar in Lok Sabha and our seats will not reduce from this. We will contest on the seats of Lok Sabha we have. As we are in the INDIA bloc, JD-U has an alliance with the RJD and hence we have left 24 seats to it as RJD has an old alliance with the Congress and Left parties. 24 seats is not less. They can distribute it with each other," Yadav said.
“We have a clear stand on not contesting less than 16 seats in Bihar. However, there is a possibility to exchange one or two seats with the alliance partners," he added.
Senior party leader K.C. Tyagi voiced similar statements and asked the Congress to be realistic.
"In the Congress-ruled states or where it is directly in fight with the BJP, there is no problem in seat-sharing but in the non-Congress, non-BJP states where regional parties are in dominant position, the Congress is demanding more seats which is unrealistic. Congress' top leadership should realise the ground reality of those states," he said.
"We have 16 sitting MPs and we will not compromise on it," Tyagi said.