Patna, (Samajweekly) Lok Janshakti Party national president Chirag Paswan on Saturday appeared to soften his stand on the party’s strategy during the Bihar assembly elections following BJP national president JP Nadda’s meeting with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.
LJP official spokesperson Asraf Ansari said the party will go along with the BJP’s decision. Earlier in the day, Nadda announced that the LJP is not going anywhere. The party is part of the NDA and will fight the Bihar assembly elections along with the BJP.
“We didn’t have any discussions on seat-sharing with leaders of the BJP or the JDU but whatever decision is taken by BJP, the LJP will accept it,” said Ansari.
“Our party president Chirag Paswan has no rift with CM Nitish Kumar. He is just raising issues related to the state with the chief minister,” added Ansari.
He, however, pointed out that despite the decision of LJP parliamentary board to contest on 143 seats, the party president till take a final call on the number of seats it wants to contest on.
Paswan has raised questions over migration of labourers and unemployment. He was also reportedly upset with CM Kumar’s decision to include the Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM),led by former CM Jitan Ram Manjhi, in the NDA.
There is a buzz that the ruling JDU wants the seats to be divided into two parts and it would allocate seats to the HAM from its quota even as the BJP gives seats to the LJP from its quota. The BJP, on the other hand, reportedly wants seats to be divided into three parts and the JDU to allocate seats to the HAM from its quota.
