Snubbed by BJP, JD(U) names 26 seats it will fight in UP polls
PATNA After failing to get any word from ally Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP), the Janata Dal (United) on Saturday announced the names of 26 seats it would contest in the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls.
The list of seats announced on Saturday by the party’s national president Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh included Rohaniya, which falls in the Varanasi Lok Sabha seat represented by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. JD (U), however, did not name the candidates for the seats announced on Saturday.
“Names would be announced by JD(U)’s Uttar Pradesh unit president Anoop Patel as there are multiple claimants. The party has also authorized him to announce more seats from where the party would contest,” Singh told reporters in New Delhi.
JD(U) and BJP are part of the ruling alliance both in Bihar and at the Centre.
The JD(U) president minced no words in showing his frustration after being cold-shouldered by BJP on their demand. “We would have fought the Uttar Pradesh polls with more strength and on more seats had we not waited so long after Union minister R C P Singh conveyed that BJP was agreeable to an alliance,” he said in an oblique attack on union minister who also belongs to JD(U).
Lalan Singh repeatedly mentioned that it was R C P Singh who was authorised by the JD(U) leadership to speak to BJP leaders and that any other person was not part of negotiations.
“We waited for so long at the instance of the union minister. Now we are going ahead with the decision to fight the polls independently after BJP president J P Nadda said publicly that his party’s allies in Uttar Pradesh are Apna Dal and Nishad Party and made no mention of JD(U),” said Lalan Singh, who represents Munger parliamentary constituency.
He, however, clarified that his party’s decision to fight UP polls independently will have no impact on its ties with the BJP in Bihar. “The JD(U) has fought separately in several state polls,” he said.
JD(U)’s national principal general secretary KC Tyagi said list of seats will be released phase-wise .
According to Tyagi, who is also party’s UP in-charge, nothing worked out in talks R C P Singh had with several top BJP leaders, including Amit Shah, JP Nadda, Rajnath Singh and Dharmendra Pradhan.
Experts say the chasm between BJP and JD (U) and within the JD (U) would increase further after this development. “More than the BJP, the divide within JD (U) is increasing and R C P Singh and party national president are not on the same page simply because Lalan Singh was also eyeing the union cabinet berth,” said professor Gyanendra Yadav of department of sociology at College of Commerce in Patna.
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