JD-U to fight UP polls, with or without NDA

Tyagi said JD-U was part of the NDA, but at the same time it also wanted to expand its footprint in other states where it has had good organisation in the past.

The Janata Dal (United), which heads the ruling alliance in Bihar, has decided to contest assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh scheduled next year as part of the National Democratic Alliance or alone, its general secretary KC Tyagi said on Monday.

Last year, the party suffered at the hands of its ally in Arunachal Pradesh when six of its seven MLAs there joined the BJP.

“Our first choice will be to contest as part of the BJP-led NDA and we hope it works out. We have had old presence in UP since the days of the erstwhile Samata Party, though we did not contest in 2017. We had MLAs in the UP and we also had ministers in the government. The objective is to revive the party beyond Bihar,” Tyagi said.

In the last Delhi assembly elections in 2020, the JD-U, to which Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar belongs, had contested two seats as part of the NDA, pinning its hopes on the migrant Bihari population, but could not win any seat in the AAP sweep. In Jharkhand, it contested 46 of the 81 seats on its own in 2019, but drew a blank.

JD-U’s decision to enter the UP fray is significant. In UP, BJP under Yogi Adityanath is unlikely to leave much space for smaller parties even as the Opposition is trying to cobble up a united front to stop it from retaining power. In Bihar, strains are unmistakable in the alliance between the two parties.

Tyagi said JD-U was part of the NDA, but at the same time it also wanted to expand its footprint in other states where it has had good organisation in the past.

Last year, the party suffered at the hands of its ally in Arunachal Pradesh when six of its seven MLAs there joined the BJP. JD-U had contested 15 seats in Arunachal and won seven in 2019.

A senior party leader said that JD-U would continue with its expansion plan to get the required percentage of votes to be registered as a national party. “It may not have won many seats, but it did make its presence felt in several states. The effort is to reach out to more states like Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Kerala, Tamil Nadu etc.