With Bihar going to polls in another three weeks, the Lok Janshakti Party has decided to contest the elections alone and not within an alliance with NDA, Abdul Khaliq, National General Secretary, LJP announced.
Amid speculations that LJP would part ways with the NDA, a Central Parliamentary Board meeting was held under the leadership of party chief Chirag Paswan today, where the call to break away was taken due to 'ideological differences'.
LJP will hence be contesting the elections alone on 143 seats on its own.
Paswan had on Saturday sought people’s “blessings” for his party’s ‘Bihar first Bihari first’ vision document and heaped praise on PM Narendra Modi, has made it amply clear that his main grouse is against Bihar CM Nitish Kumar-led JD(U).
The seat-sharing talks in the NDA had been stuck because Chirag has proved to be a tough bargainer and had been adamant on contesting 130 seats and fighting against JD-U contestants.
The LJP, which survives on Dalit politics, had won only two of the 42 seats in contested in 2015. Yet, the party has been surprisingly assertive under Chirag’s leadership.
In Bihar, voters belonging to Dalits, extreme backward castes and other backward classes constitute 56% of total electorate. While the BJP in a fix over the seat-sharing stalemate, some leaders feel the LJP’s exit would benefit the party vis-à-vis JD-U. Relations between these two parties had earlier nosedived when Paswan began sharing his views publically against law and order situation under CM Nitish Kumar's rule.
(With ENS, agency inputs)