Bihar BJP leader Usha Vidyarthi joins LJP, likely to contest against JD(U)

Bihar BJP leader Usha Vidyarthi joined the Lok Janshakti Party on Wednesday after meeting its president Chirag Paswan here, and is likely to be fielded from the Paliganj assembly seat where the JD(U) will contest as well. Vidyarthi, a former MLA, joined the LJP a day after another senior BJP leader from the state, Rajendra Singh, who was associated with the RSS for a long time, joined Paswan's party. Singh wanted to contest from Dinara but the seat has been allotted to the JD(U) as part of its seat-sharing arrangement with the ally BJP for the Bihar assembly polls.

The LJP, which has announced that it will contest from seats given to the JD(U) and not fight against the BJP, hopes that many more leaders from other parties will join it in the coming days. Paswan has come out strongly against JD(U) president and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, and claimed that the next government in the state will be headed by the BJP with his party's support.

Without directly targeting Paswan, the BJP has been at pains to underscore its support for Kumar's leadership of the NDA and asserted time and again that he will again be chief minister if the alliance is voted to power in the polls. The NDA on Tuesday announced its seat-sharing formula for Bihar assembly polls under which the JD(U) will contest on 122 seats and BJP 121 out of a total of 243 seats. The three-phase Bihar polls will start on October 28.