Published 14:33 IST, October 17th 2020
Bihar Polls: BJP clarifies on ties with LJP after Chirag Paswan's 'support PM Modi' remark
With days left for the Bihar assembly election, BJP amped-up its attack on former ally LJP even as Chirag Paswan has claimed that he "believes in PM's ideology"
With days left for the Bihar assembly election, BJP has amped-up its attack on former ally LJP even as Chirag Paswan has claimed that he "believes in PM Modi's ideology". Addressing the poll campaign on Saturday, BJP's Bihar in-charge Bhupendra Yadav said that the party is clear about the alliance with LJP and stressed that Nitish Kumar will be the CM of the BJP-JDU government. He had earlier highlighted that Paswan had contested and won the Jamui seat in the 2019 Lok Sabha election as a part of the NDA, and took a dig asking what changed in few months.
This comes after Union Minister Prakash Javadekar asked Paswan to stop taking senior BJP leaders' names while campaigning. Asserting that BJP had no 'B' or 'C' team in the State, Javadekar said that Paswan was trying to create confusion. Terming LJP as a 'vote-cutter, BJP expressed confidence in the NDA coalition winning 3/4ths of the majority in the upcoming polls.
"LJP always opposed JDU's politics"
On Thursday, Lok Janshakti Party president Chirag Paswan made it clear that his parting of ways with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's JD(U) had "nothing to do" with sharing of seats for the assembly elections in Bihar, whose politics his party has "always been opposed to". It must be kept in mind that the LJP has never been a fan of Nitish Kumar's style of politics. He has harmed the Dalits by creating a sub-group of Mahadalits for his own political gains", Paswan said. He rubbished Nitish's much-touted saat nishchay (seven resolves) and remarked that the rest of the country was making so much progress and here he was talking about piped water and concrete roads to alleys.
LJP won't contest under CM Nitish
On October 4, Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) decided that it won't contest Bihar polls under CM Nitish Kumar's leadership, passing a resolution for an LJP-BJP government at the Central Parliamentary Board meeting headed by LJP chief Chirag Paswan. Snubbing Paswan, BJP has reaffirmed Nitish Kumar as its CM candidate and has released its seat-share with JD(U) with BJP keeping 121 seats for itself out of which 11 seats will be given to Mukesh Sahni-led Vikassheel Insaan Party. On the other hand, JD(U) will field its candidates in only 115 constituencies whereas Hindustani Awam Morcha has been given the go-ahead in 7 seats.
Updated 14:33 IST, October 17th 2020