Lok Janshakti Party to go solo in Jharkhand polls

Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) president Chirag Paswan on Tuesday announced that his party will contest 50 seats in the Jharkhand assembly elections, scheduled to be held in five phases between November 30 and December 20.

“The Lok Janshakti Party Jharkhand state unit has decided that the party will contest 50 seats alone. The first list of party candidates will be announced by this evening,” Paswan announced on Twitter. Later in the day, the party released its first list, nominating five candidates to contest from Palamu region that would go to polls in first phase of the election on November 30.

According to people familiar with the matter, while the LJP was keen for an alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the saffron party was reluctant as its leaders believed that the regional party did not have much to offer electorally in the state. The LJP is a part of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

Paswan said he had reached out to senior BJP leaders with an offer of alliance and was going solo after they refused to entertain his request for six assembly seats. Another BJP ally in Bihar, the Janata Dal (United), has already announced that it would contest the Jharkhand assembly elections alone.

“The LJP has decided to contest the state polls independently as the BJP rejected its claim of six seats in the alliance. Candidates would be nominated for other seats soon,” said LJP state president Birendra Pradhan.

“It would have been better if the BJP had accepted LJP’s legitimate claim. We are confident of winning at least three seats,” said Pradhan.

However, he underlined that the party would keep the doors open for a post-poll alliance with the BJP.