New Delhi, June 28 (IANS) The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Janata Dal-United (JD-U) have reached an understanding for the forthcoming Bihar assembly elections with both parties sticking to the seat-sharing formula of the 2005 assembly polls, a BJP leader said Monday.

BJP Bihar unit chief C.P. Thakur also told IANS that the relations between the two parties were on track and there was no tension. He, however, did not answer a direct question on the chances of BJP leaders Narendra Modi and Varun Gandhi campaigning in Bihar for the polls.

"The two parties have reached an understanding on the number of seats they will contest in the assembly poll," Thakur said, adding the seat sharing agreement had been approved by the top leadership of both the parties but identification of seats was yet to be done.

In the 2005 poll, the BJP had contested 102 seats of the total 243 and the JD-U, the rest. While no understanding could be reached on two seats in 2005, there will be no such problem this time, he said.

Thakur said that there was a possibility of the two parties exchanging some seats. The process of identification of seats will take about 15 days, he added.

The differences between Bihar Chief Minister and JD-U leader Nitish Kumar and the BJP began June 12 when he expressed displeasure over newspaper advertisements featuring a photograph of him and his Gujarat counterpart, Modi and the references to the aid provided by Gujarat after the Kosi floods. The ads appeared on the day the BJP's two-day national executive meet was to start in Patna.