LJP decides not to fight Bihar election under Nitish Kumar's leadership of NDA, creates buzz

A day after VIP quit opposition Grand Alliance in Bihar, the state NDA saw a similar turn of events on Sunday with Ram Vilas Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party announcing a selective walkout from the alliance, refusing to contest polls under the leadership of Nitish Kumar but continue to have an alliance with the BJP.

The much talked about LJP parliamentary board meeting chaired by its president Chirag Paswan passed a resolution to this effect which also expressed confidence in the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The decision to have friendly fights among NDA allies has given rise to the buzz that the whole plan has the blessings of the BJP top leadership as the ruling party is up for a larger game plan in the state, where it never had its Chief Minister even when it was the leading party in alliance with JDU once.

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“On the national level, there is a strong alliance of BJP and LJP. At the state level due to ideological differences with NDA ally JDU, LJP has decided to fight elections separately from the alliance. There may be an ideological fight with JDU on many of the seats so that people can make a decision on those seats as to which candidate is a better choice in the interests of Bihar,” a resolution passed at the meeting said.

The meeting repeatedly flagged the “strong alliance between the BJP and LJP at the national level and also sought to clarify “there is no bitterness between BJP and LJP.”

Also read: BJP, JD(U) reach 50:50 seat-sharing formula for Bihar election

This was days after the LJP while expressing confidence in Narendra Modi’s leadership had also slamming Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s key plank of “Saat Nischay” programme in the same breath and had expressed confidence that the next government of Bihar will implement LJP’s ‘Bihar First, Bihari First Vision Document

On Saturday, Chirag had shared on social media a picture of Modi affectionately patting him and said he was proud to have got an opportunity to work with a Prime Minister, whose accomplished leadership is recognised worldwide.

On Sunday, the LJP took the BJP-LJP bonhomie thing further saying “after election results all elected MLAs of LJP will stand by development works of Modi and form a BJP-LJP government. “ It also went on to say that that the LJP is of the view that on the line of Centre, in Bihar also, a government should be formed “in the leadership of the BJP.” LJP did not even mention JDU as an ally in the next government

The buzz is that LJP is eyeing the chair of Deputy Chief Minister in Bihar and is aching to replace JDU as the largest non-BJP ally within the BJP as Paswan believes that his caste base of Paswan a vote base is bigger than of Kurmis plus Nitish Kumar.

The LJP’s categorical decision not to have any truck with JDU even as the BJP on Saturday said all is well in the alliance and assured that it has authorised three senior leaders of the party to intervene and resolve the alliance standoff between BJP and LJP.

LJP, which had announced to contest on 143 of total 243 assembly seats, wanted 42 seats for it in the alliance but BJP was not ready to party with more than 15. Earlier BJP and JDU agreed to contest an equal number of seats with the agreement that while JDU will accommodate Jitan Ram Manjhi’s Hindustan Awam Morcha from its quota, BJP will do the same with LJP.

Soon after the announcement, LJP shared video clips on social media of its workers breaking into celebrations in different parts of the state.

The sudden display of strain in last few months is not in sync with the bonhomie shown by Paswan to Nitish Kumar at the time of 2019 Lok Sabha polls that had created a buzz of both regional leaders cosying up to create a pressure group within the Bihar NDA.

The fight between the two allies has given the BJP an opportunity to play a truce-maker but political watchers see a larger pattern behind the whole row. There is a growing demand within the BJP to have its own Chief Minister in the state, which has kept raising from time to time.

BJP has for the record sake repeatedly asserted its commitment to keep NDA united in Bihar.