LJP to go it alone in Bihar Assembly election; party refuses to contest polls under Nitish Kumar, but backs BJP

The Chirag Paswan-led Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) on Sunday said it will fight the upcoming Bihar Assembly election alone and not under the leadership of JD(U) president and chief minister Nitish Kumar, according to several media reports. However, the party continued to back the BJP with a meeting of its parliamentary board chaired by Chirag earlier passed a resolution in favour of an alliance and said it will work to strengthen the hands of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, PTI, quoting sources, reported. As per a report in Hindustan Times, those in the know of details stated that the party would opt for a ‘friendly contest’ against the NDA partners. The party leadership earlier said they would not put up candidates against the BJP, as per the report. The meeting was also attended by party leaders Veena Devi, Chandan Singh, Surajbhan Singh, Raju Tiwari, Prince Raj, Kali Pandey, and Abdul Khalid, reported  NDTV. On Saturday, Chirag had “sought people’s blessings” for his party’s “Bihar first Bihari first” vision document. He tweeted an image with Modi, saying all his party’s candidates will strengthen the BJP leader’s hand

.#Bihar1stBihari1st pic.twitter.com/l1PEi15K7a

— युवा बिहारी चिराग पासवान (@iChiragPaswan) October 3, 2020

The LJP had last week served an ultimatum to the BJP, demanding a decision on the seat-sharing formula. As per NDTV, Chirag, whose father Ram Vilas Paswan is a minister in the Modi government, had claimed that the LJP will contest 143 seats out of the 243 seats in the Bihar Assembly. The LJP has in recent months stepped up attack on Kumar over issues like handling of the COVID-19 situation and the post-lockdown migrant crisis. The relationship between the two NDA allies further deteriorated following Nitish Kumar’s move to bring rival-turned-ally Jitan Ram Manjhi to the NDA. The BJP has already announced that the NDA will fight the polls with Nitish Kumar as the face of the alliance. The BJP central election committee is slated to meet later in the evening to finalise the party’s candidates for the three-phase Assembly election, which begins from 28 October**.** The Manipur Model This is hardly the first time the LJP will be going it alone. The party, for the 2017 Manipur Assembly polls, put up candidates for 11 constituencies. After winning one seat, the party  offered support to the BJP. The party also struck out on its one during the 2019 Assembly polls in Jharkhand and the 2014 Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir. Bihar goes to polls on 28 October, 3 and 7 November and the results will be announced on 10 November. With inputs from PTI