Miffed at not being part of the BJP’s alliance with the Apna Dal and the Nishad Party in Uttar Pradesh, the Janata Dal(U) has decided to fight the Assembly election on its own.
JD(U) leader and in-charge for Uttar Pradesh K.C. Tyagi told The Hindu that the party had fought together with the BJP and the Apna Dal in an alliance in the past.
However, despite attempts by Union Minister R.C.P. Singh who got in touch with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and BJP president J.P. Nadda, the party had continued to ignore the JD(U)’s claims.
The JD(U) had contested 22 seats in the 2007 election in alliance with the BJP.
Meeting on Jan. 18
“When we heard that Dharmendra Pradhan [Education Minister and BJP in-charge of poll in Uttar Pradesh] had announced finalisation of seat sharing with the Apna Dal and the Nishad Party and not mentioned us at all, we decided that we must fight on our own. For this we are holding a meeting on January 18 in Lucknow,” he said.
‘Original NDA’
The JD(U) had received, he said, application forms from 51 people interested in getting the party ticket.
“We are the original NDA allies with Atal Bihari Vajpayee at the head and George Fernandes as convener. We have fought in alliance in non-Bihar States earlier too,” Mr. Tyagi said.