Janata Dal (United) or JD(U) will be contesting the assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh. Party general secretary KC Tyagi said on Monday that while their first choice would be to be accommodated in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), it will still go ahead with its plans even if that does not materialise.
“Our first choice will be to contest as part of the 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,” he said.
In Delhi assembly elections, the JD(U) contested two seats as part of the NDA, but could not open its account. In Jharkhand, it contested 46 of the 81 seats on its own but again, didn’t win even one though.
Also Read | Bihar Congress unit set to have new committees ahead of change of guard
The move is significant, as in the UP, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) 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. This could also be viewed as rumblings within the NDA, which the Opposition has often flagged, since the 2020 Bihar assembly elections reduced the JD(U) to the third position. It must be noted that the party’s stance vis-a-vis UP elections comes at a time chief minister Nitish Kumar is in New Delhi for eye surgery and there are speculations about the party’s belated induction in the Union cabinet.
{{/usCountry}}The move is significant, as in the UP, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) 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. This could also be viewed as rumblings within the NDA, which the Opposition has often flagged, since the 2020 Bihar assembly elections reduced the JD(U) to the third position. It must be noted that the party’s stance vis-a-vis UP elections comes at a time chief minister Nitish Kumar is in New Delhi for eye surgery and there are speculations about the party’s belated induction in the Union cabinet.
{{/usCountry}}Earlier this year, the party had planned to contest panchayat polls in UP from some seats in eastern UP with dominance of Extremely Backward Classes (EBC) as a build-up for the assembly polls, but eventually did not do so, said Tyagi.
Tyagi said the party was only trying to expand in other states where it has had good organisation in the past. Last year, it suffered at the hands of its ally in Arunachal Pradesh when six of its seven MLAs joined the BJP.
In the past, the party has contested from several states, including Delhi, Gujarat, Karnataka, and Jharkhand, but saw limited success in Arunachal only.
“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 such as Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Chhatisgarh, Rajasthan, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu and strengthen organisation,” said a senior leader.
JD(U) leader and former party spokesperson Rajiv Ranjan said the decision to expand party base in a planned manner has been under consideration for a long time. “We did fight earlier in many states and performed reasonably well. Now, the party wants to strengthen its organisational base and fight. This is a good move, as there have been such demands from other state units,” he added.