Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday said that the seat-sharing agreement with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections would be finalised in next four to five weeks and that he would continue bat for special status for the state.

Nitish, who is also the national president of his party Janata Dal (United), declined to divulge much about his closed-door meeting with BJP chief Amit Shah in Patna last week, but agreed with Amit Shah’s statement that there were no differences between the two coalition partners.

In his first interaction with media after the much talked about meeting, Nitish said, "We discussed issues related to the state and the country. Lok Sabha elections also figured. I think a proposal on seat sharing would come from Amit Shah soon and the issue would be resolved within four to five weeks."
 

Amit Shah's, in his address to BJP workers, had said, "Opposition should stop drooling. Nitish ji is not going with anyone. He will remain with us. We know how to handle the concerns of our coalition partners."

Bihar Chief Minister made it clear that his demand of according special category status to Bihar stands firm and he would raise this in the meeting with the Finance Commission. "All political parties in Bihar had unanimously passed the resolution in this regard. They re-affirmed their demand in an all-party meeting. So, we will continue to put forward our just demand,” Nitish said.

However, he lauded the central government for giving special attention to the needs of the state and said more funds were made available to many departments, including road construction, education and others.