The Lok Janshakti Party, an ally of the National Democratic Alliance, on Sunday decided not to contest the upcoming Bihar elections under the leadership of JD(U) president and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. The party, however, did not rule out the possibility of forming an alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party after the elections.
The BJP has already announced that the NDA will fight the polls under the leadership of Kumar.
"LJP will not contest the upcoming Bihar elections in alliance with the Janata Dal (United) due to ideological differences," ANI quoted Abdul Khaliq, national general secretary of LJP, as saying.
Also, the party is not willing to back down on the issues it has been raising through its 'Bihar First, Bihari First' campaign, he said.
An LJP parliamentary board meeting chaired by its president Chirag Paswan on Sunday decided to field candidates against the ruling JD(U). The meeting also passed a resolution in favour of an alliance with the BJP and said its MLAs will work to strengthen the hands of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“After assembly elections in Bihar, LJP and BJP will form government in Bihar, following the path of development led by our Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” the party said.
On Saturday, Chirag had dropped hints that LJP would not fight polls as part of the NDA when he sought people's "blessings" for his party's "Bihar first Bihari first" campaign.
"It is not only my hope but confidence that you will bless me to make Bihar first and restore its pride so that all my candidates could strengthen the hands of the prime minister," he had written on Twitter.
Party sources told PTI that the LJP may contest on 143 seats in the elections to the 243-seat state assembly while not putting up its candidates against BJP nominees.
The LJP, the sources said, is also unhappy with the seat-sharing arrangement offered to it and is hoping to inflict damage on poll prospects of the JD(U), which has maintained that the LJP is a BJP ally and not its.
Amid the coronavirus pandemic, the Bihar assembly polls will be held in three phases on October 28, November 3 and November 7, and the counting of votes will take place on November 10.