Breaking their studied silence over Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) chief Chirag Paswan, who is locked in a feud with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, the Bihar BJP on Monday announced that LJP was no longer a part of the NDA, NDTV reported. Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi said only the BJP, the JD(U), former chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi's HAM and the VIP of Mukesh Sahni were part of the NDA, and could contest the election under that banner. The BJP, which had initially kept silent over Chirag Paswan's antics, giving rise to suspicions that the son of late Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan enjoyed its tacit support, has in the recent past distanced itself from the young leader's brinkmanship and backed Nitish Kumar's leadership to the hilt.
The declaration came after the BJP in Bihar expelled nine leaders, including a sitting member of the outgoing assembly and two former MLAs, for entering the fray against official NDA candidates, mostly as nominees of the LJP.
Chirag Paswan had been attacking Nitish Kumar for past several months and recently announced his decision to defeat the JD(U) and, paradoxically, work for installation of a "BJP-led government" in Bihar. His party has said it will be contesting more than 100 seats in the 243-strong assembly. The party came out with its list of 42 candidates for the first phase of assembly elections last week, a sizeable number of them rebels drawn from the BJP and the JD(U).
LJP candidates are in the fray in all seats contested by JD(U) and new entrants to the NDA—ex-CM Jitan Ram Manjhis Hindustani Awam Morcha and Mukesh Sahnis Vikasshel Insaan Party (VIP). However, the party has taken care, so far, not to field its candidate in seats which the BJP itself was contesting.
As part of the seat-sharing formula in the NDA, JD(U) has got 122 seats out of which it has allocated seven to its associate partner HAM, while the BJP received the rest 121 seats and it has given 11 from its share to its associate VIP.
-Inputs from PTI