After the Bihar leaders of the RLSP disapproved of the talks on seat-sharing among the NDA partners, party chief and Union Minister Upendra Kushwaha on Monday summarily rejected the possibility of a 20:20 formula of seat-sharing. Instead of rejecting in clearcut terms, he said some people were introducing cricket format in politics but “I am not interested in cricket rather I used to play gilli-danda.”

The talks in the NDA circles had been going on that under the 20:20 formula BJP would contest half of the total 40 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar and give 20 to its three allies; 12 to JD(U), five to six seats to LJP of Ram Vilas Paswan and remaining two to Kushwaha’s party. But there was no official word from either the BJP or LJP and JD(U).

The only reaction, that too symbolically, came from Kushwaha after Bihar RLSP leaders Nagmani and Bhagwan Singh Kushwaha rejected it saying their party would not tolerate discrimination and they wanted as much seats as allotted to JD(U) or rather more claiming their party represented 10 per cent of population of Kushwaha as compared to less than two per cent vote share of Kurmis.

“There have been, so far, no talks on seat sharing. Once there is talk on this matter I will tell you,” the RLSP chief told media people on Monday.

Union Minister Paswan said his party was neither worried nor in a haste on seat sharinge. He said he was not aware of such talks between JD(U) and BJP. Kushwaha who created a stir early this month by saying that he has planned to prepare kheer and its ingredients would include milk from Yaduvanshi and rice from Kushwaha. On Monday he said he was going to launch his “Paigham-e-Kheer” on Tuesday from Patna and the message of social unity would go down to villages across Bihar. “My message was meant to unite all sections of the society. Dalits and Pundits will sit together to savour our kheer. All castes and class will be welcomed in this programme,” he said.