Friday, July 8 2005 17:14 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Patna: Sharp differences surfaced in the NDA in Bihar today(July 8, 2005), a day after rebel LJP MLAs of the dissolved assembly joined the JD-U, with the BJP declaring it was not prepared to spare any of the 105 seats the saffron party had contested in the last assembly elections under seat-sharing arrangement with the JD-U.

"We are not prepared to part with any of the 105 seats we contested last time and have already decided the names of our nominees for some seats for which the JD-U is planning to nominate former LJP MLAs who joined them yesterday," state BJP general secretary Giriraj Singh and vice president Ramdeo Yadav said in a press statement. "JD-U is unnecessarily creating a dispute over fielding its candidates from the seats where we have strong base and we will not spare a single seat we had contested last time," they said.

Advising the JD-U leaders to work for consolidation of NDA's position in Bihar to help install a government after the coming assembly poll, the BJP leaders said the party would not tolerate any pressure (on sparing seats).

Sixteen rebel LJP MLAs of the dissolved Bihar assembly, who broke away from their leader Ram Vilas Paswan and pitched in for Nitish Kumar as chief minister, had joined the party yesterday.

Kumar had earlier gone on record saying the rebel LJP MLAs would be accommodated while giving tickets to contest the coming assembly poll.

Some of the seats from where the rebel LJP MLAs had emerged victorious were also contested by the BJP in alliance with JD-U in the last assembly elections.