Youth to be LJP's focus in Bihar polls

The young voters of Bihar will be the focus of the Lok Janshakti Party during its campaign for the state assembly polls slated for later this year, the party said on Thursday. LJP president Chirag Paswan has prefixed his Twitter handle with "Yuva Bihari" (young Bihari) and has been touring the state to gather supporters for the party's rally on April 14 in Patna. He has named his statewide yatra as 'Bihar first, Bihari first'. The LJP is a part of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance, which also includes Chief Minister Nitish Kumar-led Janata Dal (United).

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Earlier, Union minister and LJP leader Ram Vilas Paswan has said that it should be fought on local development issues and restraint over language must be maintained. His comments come as NDA faced a massive drubbing in the Delhi assembly polls. In his first statement after the polls, former BJP chief also agreed that statements like "Goli Maro", and "terrorist" harmed BJP's prospects.

"LJP (Lok Janshakti Party) has strongly been with the NDA. I have always said only that animal dies on the road who cannot decide whether to go left or right. As far as Nitish (Kumar) ji is concerned, I don't think he will go anywhere," he said when asked about the state of the NDA alliance in Bihar.

Kumar's JD(U) and the LJP fought as part of the NDA, he pointed out, asserting that nobody would leave for the opposition alliance in Bihar. "What is there in the Opposition. Lalu Yadav is in jail, he is unwell, the rest of the parties are singing different tunes. So who will go over to the Opposition. It is not even a sinking ship, it is one that has already sunk. They are fighting among themselves, NDA is intact," the Union Minister for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution said.

On BJP leader and Union Home Minister Amit Shah's assertion that Kumar would lead the NDA alliance in Bihar, he said the LJP has no objection to it. Asked about the vitriolic Delhi polls campaign and provocative statements by some BJP leaders in the run-up to the elections, he said LJP chief Chirag Paswan had made the party's stand clear on this and Shah also admitted that it might have been counterproductive. "No one has ever gone to the Election Commission against us. Chirag has said that the issue of election is one of development," he said.

LJP to ally BJP after Delhi setback: ‘Keep restraint over language in Bihar polls’