PATNA: In a fresh twist to the rumblings within the NDA in Bihar, ally JD (U) is going to contest separately in the Panchayat election in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh, which has a BJP government led by CM Yogi Adityanath. JD(U) has identified several pockets dominated by Kurmi and extremely backward castes (EBCs) communities in eastern UP, where it will field a majority of its candidates in the rural polls slated to be held later this year.
“Several districts in eastern Uttar Pradesh, especially those sharing borders with Bihar, have a sizeable backward population. The JD (U) had few MLAs and even MPs in UP in the past and the public meets of our former national president and Bihar CM Nitish Kumar Ji used to evoke a good response,” JD (U)’s national secretary general KC Tyagi told TOI on Thursday.
He added, “We did not contest in the assembly election in 2017 but it was decided in our recent national executive meet held in Patna that the party will separately contest in the upcoming Panchayat election to start with, and then the UP assembly election in 2022 as well.”
On being asked whether it would lead to a tussle with ally BJP, Tyagi said, “It is just for our expansion. We support the Narendra Modi government at the Centre but also want the party to grow in other states. Hence we are going to contest in upcoming panchayat election in UP.”
Incidentally, D (U) had openly criticised BJP after six of seven MLAs of JD (U) in Arunachal Pradesh joined BJP in the last week of December. BJP and JD (U) contested the assembly election in Arunachal separately held on April 11, 2019. While BJP won 41 seats and formed the government, JD (U) won seven out of 15 seats but six of its MLAs joined the saffron party on December 25.
Tyagi had said in a press briefing during the national executive meet of JD (U) on December 26 and 27 that JD (U)’s MLAs joining BJP was “uncalled for” and “not good for alliance politics”.
Reacting to the JD (U) move, BJP’s state general secretary Devesh Kumar said, “There is nothing much to be read in this. Both JD (U) and BJP are separate parties with separate constitution and structure but we have come together for a clean and corruption-free government in Bihar. Nevertheless, JD (U) has separately contested assembly election in several other states as well in the past and media reports have stated that they are going to contest in upcoming West Bengal election as well,” he said.
Meanwhile, Tyagi said a two-day meeting of the state committee of JD (U)’s UP unit was held a few days ago. “More such meetings are slated to be held in the coming weeks at Varanasi, Deoaria, Kanpur, Gorakhpur, Prayagraj and Mirzapur among others, which are our focus districts,” he said.