PATNA: The Janata Dal (United) (JD-U) stated that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is free to contest from all 40 seats in the state alone, if it does not need help from its alliances.
"If the BJP does not need the help of its alliance partners, then it can fight on all 40 seats alone. Nobody is stopping them. Every party has a decision of its own. If they want to take a decision, they can take it. There is no problem," JD (U) state chief spokesperson Sanjay Singh told ANI.
He further claimed that the JD (U) is confident of fighting elections without an alliance, as the party is united and enjoys a strong hold in all districts in the state. However, Singh noted that BJP will not be able to win without chief minister Nitish Kumar.
"There is a big difference between 2014 and 2019. Issue-based politics is taking place in the country. The issues of 2014 election were different and for 2019 it is different. BJP knows without Nitish Kumar, they will not be able to get through in Bihar," he added.
In the recent times, rifts have emerged between the JD (U) and BJP, largely due to the proposed seat share in the state assembly. In the 2015 Bihar Assembly election, JD (U) had won 71 of the 243 seats while the BJP emerged victorious in 53 seats.
The JD (U) wants the results of the Assembly election, where it had fared much better than BJP, to be a key factor while deciding how many seats each of the four National Democratic Alliance (NDA) parties in the state will get to contest in the 2019 Lok Sabha election.