LJP walks out of NDA in Bihar; targets Nitish

NEW DELHI: The Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) on Sunday walked out of the ruling National Democratic Alliance in Bihar ahead of the state assembly polls, as it attacked Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and announced that it would fight JD(U) candidates in the elections. While making its resentment with the JD(U) president Kumar clear, the LJP also went to great lengths to highlight its strong ties with the BJP, asserting in a statement that it wants the saffron party to head the future government in the state and its MLAs will work towards this goal. LJP president Chirag Paswan chaired the party’s parliamentary board meeting in which a decision was taken to not fight the assembly election, which begins from October 28 in three phases, under Kumar’s leadership of the NDA in the state.

NEW DELHI: The BJP central election committee met here on Sunday to deliberate over the Bihar Assembly polls and finalise the party’s candidates, as the ruling National Democratic Alliance suffered a setback with Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party deciding to walk out of the NDA in the state. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP president JP Nadda and other top party leaders attended the meeting.