October 5, 2020 5:10:47 am
LJP President Chirag Paswan after Sunday’s meeting in New Delhi. (Express photo by Abhinav Saha)
AFTER WEEKS of speculation and posturing, the LJP said on Sunday, after a party meeting in the National Capital, that it would fight the Bihar Assembly elections next month separately, and not as part of the ruling alliance JD (U ) -BJP.
However, the party founded by Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan took the trouble to reiterate that its alliance with the BJP in the Center was “firm”, that its MLA would back the BJP in a post-election scenario. , and that the split in the Bihar polls was due to “ideological differences” with the JD (U).
For many months, LJP Chairman Chirag Paswan has been attacking Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for his performance for the past five years, and the party now reiterates that it was ready to run candidates against JD (U) but not against BJP.
So far, LJP has floated the idea of competing from 143 seats, but no official announcement has been made yet. Elections to the 243-member assembly will be held in three phases, starting October 28.
Given LJP’s move, sources told The Indian Express that JD (U) and BJP are likely to evenly divide the number of seats they will contest. The two allies will contest 119 seats each and give five seats to Jitan Ram Manjhi’s Hindustani Awam Morcha, the sources said.
The LJP’s decision comes two days after Chirag Paswan participated in the last of many meetings with BJP President JP Nadda and Union Interior Minister Amit Shah. While there are indications that LJP wanted at least 36 seats in the alliance, the numbers offered were much lower.
A senior LJP leader told The Indian Express: “Even if the numbers had been offered, Chirag Paswan’s idea has been to expand the party. He is firm in his belief that there is an anti-concern against Nitish Kumar, and he always wanted to fight alone. This will now be our test. “
In an official statement, LJP Chief Secretary General Abdul Khalique said: “LJP has its own idea of the development of Bihar, so the vision document ‘Bihar First Bihari First’ has been prepared. At the national level, there is a strong alliance between LJP and BJP. At the state level, and in the elections to the assembly, due to ideological differences with JD (U), the decision has been made to fight the elections outside the alliance. There will be ideological struggles in many seats with JD (U) and the people can decide which candidate is better for Bihar. “
The LJP’s move is significant, with the Paswan community, which is the largest among the Dalits in Bihar, thus far backing the party. In the last assembly elections in 2015, the LJP won two seats, with 28.79 percent of the votes in the 42 it challenged; his total percentage of votes for the state was 4.83 percent. In 2010, the party obtained three seats, with 21.78 percent of the votes of the 75 that it contested, and an overall participation of 6.74 percent.
These numbers show that out of the four major parties on both sides, the BJP-JD (U) and the RJD-Congress, it is the LJP that has the largest share of votes. LJP leaders have already indicated that the party hopes to play the role of kingmaker this time.
Khalique said in the statement that LJP is committed to the path of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and its winning MLAs would back the BJP. “At the Center, we have a strong alliance with BJP, and we wanted it at the state level as well.
There is no bitterness between LJP and BJP. After the election results, the winning LJP candidates will form a BJP-LJP government, ”Khalique said.
Another LJP leader said that while it was unusual for the party to ostensibly back the BJP but fight on the sidelines of the alliance, it was unprecedented. “There may be friendly fights between BJP and LJP in some seats. Even in Manipur and Jharkhand, LJP fought separately from BJP. In Manipur, where he won some seats, we joined the BJP government, ”he said.
On Saturday, the Opposition alliance announced its seat formula with the RJD obtaining 144 seats and Congress 70. In addition, a total of 29 seats have been allocated to three left-wing parties: CPI-ML (19), CPI (6) and CPM (4). .
The relationship between JD (U) and LJP had taken a nosedive in recent months, and the party took shots at the Bihar government for its handling of Covid and the migration crisis that followed the shutdown.
(With Santosh Singh in Patna)
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