JD(U) Announces to Go Solo in 4 State Elections
PATNA: The Janata Dal-United (JD-U) on Sunday decided not be a part of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance outside the Bihar. At its national executive meeting held at Patna, the party also decided to go it alone in the upcoming Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Haryana and Delhi.
The decision is being seen as Bihar Chief Minister’s reply to the BJP after JD-U opted out of the new government at the Centre last month, reportedly as it was offered just one seat in the Cabinet appointments.
The decision has been taken in order to expand the presence of the JD(U) and to attain the status of a national recognised party by 2020, party’s chief general secretary K C Tyagi said. He was speaking to reporters here after the JD(U)’s national executive meeting, which was chaired by Kumar.
“The JD(U) is not a part of the NDA outside Bihar. We will fight (the upcoming) assembly elections in four states on our own strength,” said Tyagi, flanked by party general secretaries Pavan Verma and Sanjay Jha.
“We want to make the JD(U) a national party. The JD(U) is a recognised party in Bihar and Arunachal Pradesh,” he said. “We will fight elections in four states of Delhi, Haryana, Jharkhand and Jammu and Kashmir with all our strength and might. And it will be our endeavour to achieve the status of a national party by 2020,” he added.
The JD(U), however, is very much a part of the National Democratic Alliance at the Centre and will contest the Bihar Assembly elections in 2020 under the NDA banner, Tyagi said.
The national executive meeting of the JD(U) was attended by several senior party leaders, including vice president Prashant Kishor, RCP Singh and Bihar unit chief Bashishtha Narayan Singh.
Meanwhile, The much expected explanation from Prashant Kishor about signing up to help Mamata Banerjee with her election campaign, did not materialise as Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal United held its national executive meeting today.
Instead, Mr Kishor, the party vice president, was seen sitting next to the Chief Minister, raising speculation that Mr Kumar is turning a blind eye to the issue after being snubbed by the BJP over ministerial berths in Narendra Modi’s government.
“I just want to make it clear that this thing has no connection with the party,” Nitish Kumar said yesterday when asked about the issue. He, however, added, “Tomorrow, there is a meeting of the National Executive of the party. Prashant Kishor himself will talk about it there”.
Sources today said before the national executive started, Nitish Kumar had an hour-long meeting with Prashant Kishor. While details of their discussions are not available, there is speculation that Mr Kishor will be allowed to go ahead with strategizing for Ms Banerjee.
The Bengal Chief Minister who has been hard pressed to check the growth of the BJP in the state, had approached Prashant Kishor last week. In the recent national elections, Ms Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress had nosedived from 34 to 22 seats in the state, while the BJP went up from two to 18.
Sources indicated that in view of the BJP’s refusal to accommodate his idea of proportional representation of allies in the cabinet, has spurred Mr Kumar’s indifference to the ally’s prospects in Bengal. It was a sharp contrast from February, when following speculation that Mr Kishor had offered to craft an election strategy for Shiv Sena, the JDU had said he would not revert to his earlier career on behalf of any party.
The BJP had requested Nitish Kumar to arrest Prashant Kishore or keep him “out of Bihar” after the clashes during the Patna university election. But Mr Kumar had taken no action against the election analyst, who was behind his victory in 2015 as part of the Grand Alliance with Lalu Yadav and the Congress.(With Agency Inputs ).
