Delhi is far away for Nitish, but not ‘too far’. So he visited Delhi to meet Ram Lal in the next few days itself. With this began the tabling round between the two negotiators. Nitish wanted to paint a clear picture for the allocation of seats between BJP and JDU in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. Nitish said that at present, 32 of the 40 seats in Bihar are with the NDA alliance and the remaining 8 seats are divided among JDU, RJD and Congress. Sources reveal that Ram Lal, while clarifying the conditions before Nitish, said, “We will contest the seats which are ours; Paswan’s seats are his exclusive. Upendra Kushwaha will also be with us. We can spare the remaining 8 seats for you.”
Aghast at the offer, Nitish told Ram Lal that JDU has always been BJP’s big partner; hence it would only be fair to allot a respectable number of seats. Also, of those spared 8, maximum are Muslim-majority seats. To this, Ram Lal said that time is aplenty with JDU to prepare for those seats. This left Nitish speechless and he had to ultimately return to Patna with a doomed mission.