New Delhi: Hit by a bitter divorce with the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra, the BJP on Tuesday received another setback after its National Democratic Alliance (NDA) ally Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) decided to contest the Jharkhand Assembly polls alone.
The 81-member Jharkhand Assembly will vote in five phases starting from November 30 to December 20. Counting of votes will take place on December 23. Sharing the news of contesting alone, Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan's son Chirag, who recently took over the reins of the party said: "The decision to contest election in Jharkhand was to be taken by the party's state unit. And the state unit of the LJP has decided to contest on 50 seats independently. By today evening the party will release the first list of candidates."
LJP contested unsuccessfully on one seat in 2014 Assembly polls in the state.
Nitish Kumar-led Janata Dal-United (JD-U) has also decided to go it alone in the Jharkhand Assembly polls. The BJP, LJP and the JD-U currently have a coalition government in Bihar. The BJP is contesting the Jharkhand Assembly polls in alliance with the AJSU. The BJP released the first list of 52 candidates for the Assembly polls in the state on Sunday.
The news comes as a setback for the BJP, which was left red-faced in Maharashtra after the Uddhav Thackeray-led party — its 30-year-old alliance partner — snubbed it over government formation in the state.
The allies parted ways, with the Sena saying it was breaking all ties with the Bharatiya Janata Party as the power sharing formula in Maharashtra drove an irreparable wedge between the two partners, who till before the elections said their shared Hindutva ideology had kept them together.
Often compared to a bad marriage, the Shiv Sena and the BJP’s relationship had been rocky over the last few years as both tussled to be the dominant partner in the key state, where the power axis had tilted considerably towards the latter.
(With IANS inputs)
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