Also present in the Nitish Kumar-Sushil Modi meet at CM’s chamber were state NDA convener and road construction minister, Nand Kishore Yadav, JD(U) ministers Vijendra Yadav and Vijay Kumar Choudhary.

The chief minister told them about Janata Dal (United)’s plan to claim four seats of Rajya Sabha and leaving two for the ally. JD(U) is likely to retain the three retiring members––Mahendra Prasad or King Mahendra, Ali Anwar and Anil Sahni. For the fourth seat the name of the state party chief Vashisht Narayan Singh is under active consideration.

As on Wednesday Modi had on Thursday reportedly pointed out that the BJP had helped the JD(U) in Rajya Sabha election in 2006 and 2010 and this  time the JD(U) should return the favour by giving three seats to the party.

However, the Janata Dal (United) said that the favour of the BJP had been returned in the Legislative Council election the same year.

Top BJP leaders would speak to Nitish and arrive at a final decision shortly. The last date for filing the nominations for the six Rajya Sabha seats is March 19.

Nitish reportedly told Modi and Nand Kishore Yadav that the NDA would be the beneficiary of the two Rajya Sabha seats that the RJD would lose.

Sources said that the BJP leaders pushed their points by stating that the party had 21 surplus votes against the JD(U)’s 13 and how it had backed the JD(U) nominees with its additional votes in the 2006 and 2010 biennial elections.

Nitish reportedly told them that the context was different in the previous elections.

Reports said that the RJD is learnt to be gearing up to put up the seventh candidate in the race to disallow a walkover to the NDA.

Sources in the JD(U) said the chief minister might speak to Arun Jaitley and other senior representatives of the BJP high command to have his way