A day after BJP declared its first list of candidates for Jharkhand assembly elections, its ally JD(U) said talks with its NDA ally over seat sharing have failed and announced nominees for 19 seats.

"The current situation is that our seat sharing talks with BJP for Jharkhand assembly polls have broken down. We had been talking to them (BJP leadership) for the last three days, as we wanted to contest 18 seats like last time, but talks have failed," JD(U) chief Sharad Yadav told reporters in New Delhi.

BJP, however, described as surprising the breakdown of the talks, saying it was a "unilateral" decision taken by its NDA ally despite being offered their priority seats.

Yadav said both the alliance partners could not reach a consensus. "First they announced their candidates, and today we decided to announce ours," he said.

Out of the 81 assembly constituencies in the state, BJP yesterday declared its first list of candidates for 58 seats. The JD(U) chief indicated that his party could announce more names. "The field is open for us now," he said. During the last assembly elections, JD(U) had contested 18 seats and won six and wanted to contest the same number of seats this time.

Reacting to the development, BJP leader Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, who was given the responsibility of finalising the seat-sharing arrangement with JD(U), told PTI "I am hurt and surprised to hear this news. We had honoured JD(U)'s demands and offered them their priority seats during the discussions. The announcement of breakdown of talks by JD(U) is one-sided and unilateral".