Bihar:LJP to contest assembly elections solo

As expected, the LJP will not be a part of Nitish Kumar led NDA in Bihar. The party has decided not to contest the 2020 Bihar assembly elections with JD(U) supremo Nitish Kumar as the chief ministerial face of the NDA alliance. The Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) has further decided to advocate a vision document with 'Bihar First, Bihari First' as its slogan in the upcoming polls. The party statement said that this decision has been taken in  the LJP's parliamentary board meeting on Sunday chaired by Chirag Paswan. All members of the party decided to support Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The LJP decided to field candidates against Kumar's ruling Janata Dal United. No candidates will be fielded against the BJP and "all the candidates who win will form a BJP-LJP government", the party said after the meeting. The LJP has cited state-level "ideological differences" as the reason for the shift and said it wants to implement the "Bihar vision document" on which it has ot reached a consensus with the JD(U). .

The LJP's decision comes at the end of months-long sparring with the JD(U) over a number of issues, including the state's handling of the coronavirus crisis and Nitish  Kumar's joining forces with former Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi, a Dalit leader like the Paswans with an overlapping support base. Within the party, Chirag Paswan has not been shy about expressing his ambitions for the top job.Rajiv Ranjan, spokesperson of the Janata Dal United, said as long as the BJP-Nitish Kumar alliance remains intact, "we don't have any confusion about getting a thumping majority"